Pulling Heaven Down
by Fidelian
Summary: AU, All human. There's a really long way to go before you reach true love and happiness, and we all know how clumsy Bella is, don't we? BellaxEdward, JasperxAlice, EmmettxRosalie. I love reviews!
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: Yeah, so this is my second Twilight story. It is of course Edward/Bella (and Jasper/Alice and Emmett/Rosalie) and **_**everyone is human**___**So here we go.**

**BPOV**

"Alice, I swear, if you are not out here in the next five seconds, I will break down the door!"

I was usually a very patient person – really, I was – but there was something about my roommate's bathroom habits that made me completely insane. It was probably the fact that she could be in there for four hours straight.

"Alright, alright," she said, opening the door and walking past me, looking perfect as usual.

I was the black sheep of the group, there was no doubt about it. Alice, short and black-haired, looked like a pixie with glowing skin and sparkling eyes. My other roommate, Rosalie, was the Perfect Woman according to most guys. She had long blonde hair, far past her waist, and looked like she should be a model rather than a college student. While Alice took hours getting ready, Rose needed no work to look amazing.

"Alice, please," she said airily, stalking through the hall past me and into her room. "You know you're not allowed to lock the bathroom door when you're getting ready."

"Sorry, Bella," Alice said to me, then she added in a louder voice, "Sorry, Rosie!"

"Don't call me that," Rose snapped.

Yes, I was certainly the black sheep. I had long brown hair, nothing special about it, and I was so pale that my skin almost seemed translucent. That is, when I was not blushing, so not that often. Alice was suddenly looking me up and down, appraising my outfit. I nervously tugged at the bottom of my modest-cut blouse.

"This will not do, Bella," she said sadly. "If you keep hiding your body like this, I will have to take action."

I winced. Not a make-over. Anything but that. "Really, you don't have to do that."

Alice grinned. "Come on, then. Let's find you something that won't force me to call you Grandma Swan."

I rolled my eyes, but followed her none the less. I did not want to be called grandma by anyone. Glancing in Rose's room, I saw her spinning in front of her mirror, appraising her looks. I laughed as silently as I could, but she saw me in the mirror and glared at me. Suddenly, I could feel Alice pull me by the arm.

"I've found the perfect outfit!" she squealed, practically bouncing up and down.

I cringed inwardly. Alice and I did not have the same understanding of 'the perfect outfit'. I looked it over none the less, and was pleasantly surprised. On my bed was a pair of tight black jeans and a simple red tank top. A pair of black ballet shoes were lying neatly on the floor. I think I might have 

nodded, because before I knew it, Alice was stripping my clothes and helping me put the new ones on.

I looked in my full-body mirror and gasped. My body looked so good, I had curves! "Thank you, Alice," I said in amazement.

"Well," she said in a proud voice, "my work here is done."

And she left my room, yelling "Rosie!" as she closed the door behind her. I just stood there in front of the mirror, and felt a blush spread across my cheeks. Who was I kidding anyway? I hadn't had been in a relationship in over a year, and my last one had been… difficult, to say the least. I shouldn't delude myself into thinking that anyone would be interesting in little old me.

Sitting down on my bed, I picked up the book closest to me. It was _Wuthering Heights_, of course. I'd been reading it for what must've been the hundredth time. I was in my second year of college, with English Literature as my major. In the evenings and weekends I worked at a bookstore/coffee place named The Literati. I was really into books, as you may understand.

Alice and Rose were my best friends, or more like my sisters. I had known Rose since I was little, and in high school we stumbled upon Alice, who quickly decided that we were all meant to be the best of friends. We moved into this large but kind of worn apartment straight out of high school. It was really expensive, but Alice was… let's say she didn't need to think about money very much. Her parents were unbelievably wealthy, but they had never been around. I always imagined that's why Alice was so very defensive over me and Rose. We were all she had.

Rose was something else completely. She had always been a Barbie kind of girl, while I just wanted to read. We had compromised and managed to remain as close as always. She may have seemed shallow and just good looks, but there was a sassy and sarcastic person beneath all the beauty. I loved her calm and coolness, especially in light of Alice's excitement and bubbly personality.

Again, I was the black sheep. I had no particular personality traits – except that I seemed to fall down a lot – and I wasn't very exciting. But they still stayed friends with me, and I felt strangely thankful. Yes, I had pretty bad self-confidence.

Suddenly Alice's head was in my doorway, bopping up and down excitedly. "Come on, Bella, let's go!"

I laughed and followed her out into the hall where Rose stood, already finished putting on her jacket and high stiletto boots. Being the designated driver, as I was the only one not yet twenty-one, I drove us to the club Alice finally had convinced me to go to. I wasn't the dancing type, as I sometimes wondered if my feet had a life separate from my body.

We entered the place, and I groaned immediately. There were so many people and everyone looked drunk out of their minds. Alice looked ecstatic as she looked at the huge dance floor, and even Rose cracked a small smile when she spotted the cute bartenders. We grabbed a small high table and sat down. Alice was bobbing her head with the music and Rose quickly took our drink orders and hit the bar.

When she returned, I quickly grabbed my Coke and took a sip. This place was making me nervous.

"Relax, Bella," said Alice, patting my arm. She was having a Metropolitan, sipping merrily.

I tried to smile at her and actually felt a bit more at ease. Rose had finished her beer quickly and told Alice to hurry up with her drink, eager to go flirt some more with the bartender. Her eyes were a little unfocused, and something told me that chugging down a beer in under five minutes had been a bad idea. But soon enough she was back at the bar.

"Let's dance, Bella!" Alice shrieked, she too looking a little tipsy. I shook my head vigorously.

"Dancing will wait until I can drink like you and Rose," I laughed.

"Suit yourself then," she giggled and danced out to join the many bodies that were grinding against each other on the floor. I cringed, wishing I had any control at all over my body movements. I looked around, trying not to look at the dancing people, and my eyes fell on the back of a head.

He was sitting alone about five tables away, looking at the people on the dance floor. His hair was an amazing shade of reddish brown. It was thick and kind of insane, but still looked like he could be a hair model. As if sensing my eyes on him, he suddenly turned around and met mine.

I gasped at the intensity of his eyes, they looked very green, and I quickly looked down at the table. I could feel my cheeks growing warm and cursed my pale skin. When I dared look up again, the beautiful man had been joined by two others. Both were also beautiful, one was huge and laughing a booming laugh, while the other looked pretty shy and had blonde hair.

"Wow," I whispered. If Rose could have seen these three… They wouldn't have known what hit them.

The red-haired man looked over at me with a curious look in his eyes, and again I gasped and looked down. He must wonder why I was staring at him. I was so ashamed, why did I have to make a fool of myself over and over again? He was clearly out of my league, so much that it was laughable. I looked up quickly and saw that they were leaving, the blonde and the big one were laughing and punching each other in the arm playfully. The red-haired one looked over at me one last time and gave me a crooked smile. I gaped at him and turned around, looking for Rose and Alice.

I couldn't believe it. Rose was on the wrong side of the bar, taking orders and giving out drinks to the patrons. The bartender she had flirted with was glancing at her every two seconds. Shaking my head, I searched for Alice and found her on stage, right next to the DJ. She was dancing wildly, while the people on the dance floor cheered and clapped. I slapped my forehead.

Getting them home would probably take a while. As I fought my way to the bar to start with trying to reason with Rose, all I could think of was a head of wild bronze hair and a pair of piercing green eyes.

**Author's Note: What do you think? I know Bella seems to be a bit of a chicken, but it will all be explained. If you want to read more, please leave a review.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's note: A new chapter a day after the last. High fives all around, people! I hope you're enjoying the story, and that you'll review.**

**BPOV**

Every day after school, I worked a shift at the Literati and then I went home to study. I usually studied in the privacy of my room, at the huge desk I had found at a yard sale the summer after graduating from high school, but I was feeling a little lonely so I decided to study in the living room. This turned out to be a not-so-great idea. Rosalie, who should have known better, had given the cute bartender her number and now he kept calling her cell phone every ten minutes. Her only response was to roll her eyes and let the phone ring for as long as it may.

Alice was practicing her dancing in the middle of the floor. She went to a prestigious art college, which combined music, dance and art. This was perfect for Alice, since she had been dancing her whole life. Even when she just walked, she had a certain grace I could only dream of achieving with my two left feet.

I was sitting in our big armchair – my favorite – and was trying to read the assigned book for my English Lit class,_ Anna Karenina_. It was a pretty confusing book, especially since Alice was doing some hip hop-jazz-waltz thing, making the table shake constantly. When Rose's phone rang for what must have been the tenth time, I suddenly let out a loud roar.

Alice immediately paused the CD player and stared at me. Rose gave me a weird glance and, looking a little frightened, picked up her phone and uttered a weak "Hello?", still keeping her wide eyes on my red face. I tried to calm myself while Rose muttered into her phone. Alice was fingering her hair and sighing impatiently.

When Rose finally had hung up on the poor bartender, she turned to me again. "What the hell?" she said incredulously.

"I'm sorry!" I groaned. "I don't know what's with me this week. I feel so weird."

Rosalie put her palm against my forehead and frowned. "You don't seem to have a fever."

"No, I don't mean _sick_ weird, just… weird."

"It's alright, Bella," Alice said in her usual excited voice, "because this Friday we're going out again!"

Oh, no. "No, no," I said quickly. "I really don't feel like –"

"Shush, Bella," Alice patted my head. "Listen to us. We are the ones who look out for you, you know."

"I know," I sighed. It was true, I didn't know what I would have done without these two insane girls. I really didn't want to find out, either.

"That's settled then," Alice laughed. "And by the way, Rosie had the –"

"Don't call me that, damn it!" Rose shouted in fury.

"Sorry," Alice giggled, not seeming a bit sorry. "Anyway, _Rose _had this brilliant idea that we're going to have a pre-club party! It will be just the three of us, here in the apartment, getting our drink on."

"Sounds swell," I said dryly.

I really had never hoped two days would go by slower.

As you probably can imagine, two days have never flown by faster, and I found myself yet again in the makeup claws of Alice. I can freely admit that, when she had finished with me, I did look really good. Not Rosalie good, but still not ugly. As I sat in front of Alice's vanity mirror, watching her curl the ends of my hair, I couldn't help but make my mind wander. Scrutinizing my own mirror reflection, I pretended to see someone else next to me, a bronze-haired beautiful man with pale skin. My breath instantly caught and I blushed. Why was I so pathetic? It's not like this beautiful creature would ever deign to associate himself with someone as ordinary as I was. I closed my eyes and saw his face on the back of my eyelids. He was turning around, giving me that crooked smile, and I melted.

It really was pathetic of me to fantasize about someone I had seen in a club, and only once. We hadn't even said a word to each other. Then again, I hadn't had any intimate male contact in over a year… I was bound to be a little tense and overly imaginative. I sighed and thanked the higher beings that I was likely not to meet this gorgeous stranger ever again.

"There," Alice said triumphantly, and I shook my head dazedly. I looked in the mirror again and saw that I, as predicted, looked very good.

"Thanks, Alice," I said and smiled at her in the mirror. When I stood up, she gave me a playful slap on the butt and giggled. I rolled my eyes and left her room.

She followed me out but turned and went into the bathroom. When I got into my room, I found yet another outfit resting on my bed. This time it was a short but modest navy blue skirt with some black pattern on it and a white tank top, with a long golden chain resting on top of it. Inwardly thanking Alice for knowing my limitations, I saw that I would be wearing black chucks tonight. As I put the clothes on and looked in the mirror I found that I was, once again, looking good. Maybe I had a bit too low self esteem… Let's face it, I wasn't a hunchback or anything. Maybe, if that guy was there tonight, I would even say hello. I probably wouldn't, I quickly righted myself.

"Let the binging begin, ladies!" I heard Alice call from the living room. Grinning, I grabbed my purse and ran out into the hall.

When I got to the living room, I stopped and gaped. It looked like a bar. There were bottles and cans of beer everywhere. On a corner of the table stood three black shots, and weird techno music was playing from the stereo.

"Come on, Bella!" Alice shrieked. "We're going to do shots first!"

An hour later, all three of us were pretty tipsy, and as usual we began to tell each other secrets. When Rosalie had told us that her hair looked like a frizzy wig in the morning – which Alice and I already knew since we took pictures of her sleeping once for blackmail purposes – and Alice had shared the fact that she had been in four relationships but never been in love, I felt confessional.

"I'll never be loved by a man," I said dramatically.

This comment caused general uproar. Rosalie hugged me tearfully and Alice almost fell off the couch and waved her arms, sending empty beer cans flying in every direction.

"Don't be silly, Bella," Alice muttered when she had up righted herself again. "Of course you will find someone."

"How do you know?" I said with a bit of a slur. "You've met four guys and given them everything you have, and here you are! And where are they? Gone!"

Alice's bottom lip was trembling and I instantly realized that maybe I was being a tad insensitive. Rose, thankfully, saved the situation.

"I'm drunk enough to go out now!" she happily announced. "Look!" Then she gave me a flirtatious stare and flipped her hair over her shoulder, where it slapped Alice in the face.

"Perfect!" I clapped my hands and hugged her. "Let's go, then."

Alice called a cab and, without even knowing if we had everything we needed with us, we headed out to it. In the cab I thought about the mysterious guy, and I was almost convinced that maybe he had been a little interested in me, after all…

The place was just as packed as it had been the weekend before, only it wasn't as terrifying this time. As I stumbled to a high chair, I wondered how that could be. There was nothing different about me this time, was it? I hiccupped loudly and giggled. Alice burst out laughing, while Rose was checking her hair in the compact she always carried with her.

"You're not getting away tonight, Bella!" Alice shouted over the music. Then she held out her hand and I took it happily, wondering vaguely what it was I wasn't going to get away from.

I realized about ten seconds after I had been dragged to the middle of the dance floor by Alice. Dancing. I hated the word.

"Come on, Bella," Alice giggled. Rose was moving sensually next to me, her eyes already on some guy. I decided to give it a shot.

A couple of songs later, I was the king of the world. Alice was laughing with me, spinning me around and doing some funny 70's moves. Rose was long gone, probably at the bar.

After about half an hour, I could see Rose fighting her way towards us through the dancing crowd. She looked mightily pissed off.

"Ugh," she said as she reached us. "Come on, let's go sit for a while." She grabbed my hand and I grabbed Alice's while we fought our way to the same high table we'd occupied the weekend before.

"What's wrong, Ro –" Alice began, when Rose spun around to glare at her, daring her to finish the name.. "-se," Alice finished.

"Some guy just punched the cute bartender trying to get my attention," she spat. "So goddamn pathetic."

I laughed and leaned forward to whisper, "Who was it?"

Rose smiled at my behavior and leaned over Alice to look around at the other tables. She soon found who she was looking for and pointed.

"That guy," she said. "The big one."

Still laughing a little, I turned around – and almost had a heart attack. There he was, my mysterious guy, my Prince Charming. Just as I was staring open-mouthed he turned around and met my eyes. The green in them sparkled and I swallowed shallowly.

"Oh my God!" I exclaimed, grabbing both Rosalie and Alice by the arm.

"Bella, why are you bruising my arm?" Alice said curiously, trying to find the guy Rose was talking about.

"That's him," I gasped, instantly going red.

"I know!" Rose said, folding her arms across her chest. "What an ass."

"No, I mean the red-haired one," I hissed. "I saw him here last week."

"So?" said Rosalie, still glaring at the big guy. Alice, on the other hand, had found their table and looked around at me curiously.

"He's gorgeous," she smiled.

"I know," said both Rosalie and I together, then we looked at each other in confusion.

"I mean," Rose said, collecting herself quickly. "He's such an ass."

"Actually," Alice said, "I think the blonde one seems really interesting."

I turned around to look at him and saw him look up and notice Alice staring at him. He instantly blushed and looked down at the table.

"Okay, ladies," said Alice, forcing her eyes away from the blonde one. "We have a mission."

Rose huffed.

**Author's note: Wow, that was so long for me! I'm so proud of myself. I tried to get a little more humor in there. And we'll get some action from those beautiful boys soon! Please review if you want to read more.**


	3. Chapter 3

**BPOV**

The morning after, I woke up with a terrible hangover. I had the usual second of blind panic, trying to understand where I was, before realizing I was lying on the floor beneath the kitchen table.

_What the hell?_

I tried to sit up, but hit my head on the underside of the table and groaned loudly. I slapped my forehead, making the headache even worse. Sighing with pain, I got up on all fours and started to crawl out from under the table. Why did these things always happen to me? What had I done to deserve this torment? Suddenly I heard a devilish chuckle from above.

Rose was looking down at me, grinning through her thick mane of blonde hair. She didn't look the least bit hung over. Lucky bastard.

"Help," I moaned and she grabbed my hand to pull me up to my feet. "Thank you."

I suddenly noticed the steaming cup of coffee in her other hand and found myself gaping longingly at it. Rose chuckled again and walked over to the cupboard where we kept our cups. She grabbed my cup – which was shaped as a cow – and filled it with hot coffee from the coffee maker.

I didn't have words to thank the woman as I accepted my Moo-Moo cup, so I just tried to smile at her groggily, sliding onto a kitchen chair. Resting my head on my arms, which were crossed on the table, I tried to fend off the pounding in my head.

"So," Rose said, sitting down opposite me and drumming her fingers on the table. "Not one of your best mornings, eh?"

"What tipped you off?" My sarcastic voice was muffled against my arms.

Rose laughed and patted my head, making me want to slap her pretty face. I growled at her half-heartedly and she snapped her hand away and mumbled, "Sorry."

Afraid I might have hurt her, I glanced up. She quickly hid a smile. I went back to glaring.

"What happened last night?" I groaned. I could remember everything until we had decided – Rose still trying to convince us she didn't want the blonde one - to fight for the three gorgeous men we had seen at the club. I couldn't believed my mysterious guy had been there again last night, just thinking about his face made my stomach churn – or maybe it was the alcohol splashing around in my poor stomach.

Rose looked at me. "Well, for some weird reason Alice thought I was into that big guy that punched my bartender." She let out an ugh-sound. "He's such a pain in the ass."

I heard a tinkling laugh behind me. "Sure, Rosie, and you weren't drooling over him at all," Alice said sarcastically.

"Not a drop," Rose said, her chin high. I frowned when she didn't react to her hated nickname. This guy must really have her frazzled.

"Will someone tell me what happened?" I snapped and instantly regretted it, massaging my temples tenderly.

"Rose's crush came over to apologize to her," Alice said between chuckles, "and she _blushed_."

I gasped and turned to Rose. "No way!" In all the years I'd known her, I hadn't seen Rose blush even once. She was far too confident.

"I did not," she said coolly, but I could see her eyes flickering from me to Alice nervously.

"Anyway," said Alice, attracting my attention. "Since Rose wouldn't say a word to the poor guy, I asked his name. It's Emmett, by the way."

I nodded, though I thought it sounded kind of old fashioned. "Nice name."

Rose snapped her eyes to me. "Isn't it, _Isabella_?"

My cheeks were beet red in under a second. I hated my full name. "Go on," I said to Alice, trying to get the attention away from me.

"So I asked the guy who his friends were, and he said they were called Edward and Jasper," Alice continued.

I would have asked who was named what, but Alice's tone made it very clear that Jasper was the blonde one who had caught her attention instantly. I swooned internally. Edward. What a beautiful, beautiful name.

"- school," I heard Alice finish a sentence. "Isn't that great, Bella?"

"Huh?" I said groggily, feeling the pounding in my head return now that I wasn't fantasizing of Edward-

"Edward," Alice said dramatically, and suddenly had my full attention, "goes to my school!"

I didn't really know how to respond to that. It was such an amazing coincidence that I couldn't really believe it. "How do you know?" was the only thing I thought to ask before, "Wait! He doesn't take ballet, does he?"

Alice and Rose laughed out loud. "No, he certainly doesn't," Alice said, wiping a tear of laughter away. "He plays the piano."

Piano. That was kind of… sexy is the only word that fully applies.

"And," Alice continued, "I know this because I went over to their table while Emmett was trying to apologize to Rosie."

"You did?" I gasped. "What happened? What did they say?"

I could easily see that Alice was enjoying the attention. Rose huffed quietly and flipped her hair over her shoulder, as she always did.

"I tried to talk to Jasper," she began, but halted. "Bella, he's so shy. He only gave me a 'hi' and then he didn't say another word. I had to talk to Edward to stop myself from getting embarrassed."

I tried to stop the laughter that was threatening to arise. Alice with a shy guy? That was doomed from the beginning; Alice only fell for loud and rowdy boys, who dressed impeccably of course. But as I saw Alice look out the kitchen window, deep in thought, I realized that maybe this is exactly what she needs; someone who isn't like those other guys who only hurt her in the end.

"Jasper will come around," I said in support. "Wish I'd had the courage to talk to… Edward." The name still sounded too exquisite to leave my clumsy lips.

Again, Rose and Alice both laughed. I instantly began to fear the worst.

"Oh no, what did I do?"

Alice crumpled to the floor, laughing insanely. Rose grinned widely and leant over the table to give me a friendly pat on the shoulder.

"Sweetie," she said calmly, "you flirted with him like nobody's business."

Gasping, my head thumping worse than ever, I too fell to the floor while groaning loudly. Why was I such a bad drunk?

"What did I do, more precisely?" I whimpered, my cheek pressed against the cold floor, Alice's laughing face just a few inches away from mine.

"You were fabulous," Alice shrieked. "You didn't walk up to him or anything, thank God, but you turned around every minute and winked at him."

"Oh my God," I moaned. "He probably thinks I'm some drunken slut. Why did I drink? Why?"

Rose sighed and sat down on the floor between me and Alice. "Actually," she said, "it wasn't that bad. You made him kind of… flustered."

I lifted my head off the floor to stare at her. "Flustered?"

She nodded. "He looked like he didn't know what to do," she chuckled. "I could've sworn I even saw him blush once or twice."

Huh. How about that; Bella Swan, drunken slut extraordinaire. "Maybe I should try talking to him sometime," I muttered bitterly. I had never even heard his voice.

Rosalie's phone suddenly beeped, waking me from my troubled thoughts. She sighed and looked at the window of the phone. Then, believe it or not, the goddess of Cool, the heiress of Grace, Rosalie blushed.

"Oh. My. God," gasped Alice, staring at Rose.

My eyes flickered frantically between the girls while the phone kept ringing. "What? What?"

"You gave him your cell number, didn't you?" Alice nodded, looking scandalized.

Rose rolled her eyes and answered the phone. "Hello?" she said in a sexy voice she never used with the boys the day after she'd met them. It made her weak in their eyes, she used to tell me and Alice seriously. Then she suddenly stood up and left the kitchen. A couple of seconds later, we heard the door of her room close.

"I can't believe it," Alice said, shaking her head slowly. "We said we wouldn't exchange any numbers. We were going to stick to the plan."

"Plan?" I had placed my cheek back against the floor again.

"Yeah," Alice muttered. "We figured Edward is the weak link of the group since we go to the same school. I could 'accidentally' bump into him somewhere and suggest a night out or something."

I laughed suddenly. "And now Rose can just ask Emmett over the phone." Shaking my head against the floor, I said, "She's such an evil thing."

"So true," Alice pouted, crossing her arms over her chest.

I looked up at her like a child. "Breakfast time?" I whimpered.

She laughed, nodded and gave me a helping hand to get up.

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**Author's note: This story is blowing me away. I can't stop writing, and I'm loving it! I hope at least some of you love it too. If you do, please review. (Don't you love it when something rhymes?)**

**PS: The next chapter will be from Edward's POV!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's note: Thank you so much to those who reviewed! I love knowing that at least some people appreciate this story. It makes me write so much faster. This chapter is over 2,000 words! That's so long for me, haha. Anyway, here is the first chapter we have from Edward's POV. Hope you'll like it!**

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**EPOV**

This was so pathetic. I am so pathetic.

A week ago, I had been blackmailed by my two best friends to go to a loud and crowded club. I didn't mind going out partying, I just didn't like clubs. I was more of a pub kind of guy; not as many drunken girls that threw themselves at you.

And now I sound like I'm a monk.

I don't date very much. One of the reasons why is my piano. I have played the piano for as long as I can remember; my mother was very into classical music when I was little. Another reason is that I just don't find that many girls attractive. I'm not like every other guy just trying to get into girls' pants and then run away. I wanted to find something more than that. I know that's not very common for a twenty-one-year old to say, and it was certainly not normal for a guy of any age to say, but it was honestly how I felt. I needed more than the physical stuff.

Anyway, I had been blackmailed into going to one of those sweaty clubs, and I didn't think the night would be any more exciting than our club nights usually were. I was so desperately wrong.

When we got there, it was the same as usual. We ordered some beer and found a high table, Emmett was being rowdy and Jasper was being shy. Actually, those are very accurate descriptions of my best friends. Emmett was loud and kind of insane. He was obsessed with lifting weights and clueless with the opposite sex. Jasper was nothing like Emmett, he was quiet and very shy. There was no actual reason for him being that way, that was just how he was. But he had some great humor in him when he felt relaxed and at ease.

I had known both the guys since high school. We had instantly bonded through our differences. Emmett had been an all star football player, I was sort of a band nerd and Jasper had been... Jasper. We started hanging out after I had stopped Emmett from trying to beat up Jasper. Apparently Jasper had made a quiet comment about football players' intelligence, or their lack thereof, and a second later Emmett had him in a headlock. So I grabbed them both by the ear and pulled them apart while people cheered us on all around. After that, we were inseparable.

But that night at the club, I was seriously wondering why I was friends with these idiots. They had threatened my greatest Debussy CD, saying it would be broken when I least expected it if I didn't party with them. What choice did I have?

They left me alone, none the less! I sat at our table, bitterly sipping my beer, while Jasper was walking around and observing the dancing people and Emmett had apparently set eyes on some beautiful blonde girl at the bar. That's when it happened. I could feel a pair of eyes on me and turned around, and there she sat. The most strangely beautiful girl I had ever seen.

She had very long brown hair and dark eyes, her skin was so pale it would have felt see-through if it wasn't for the slight blush that colored her cheeks. Her frame was kind of tall and gangly and it fit her so well that I could almost feel my mouth water. To top it all off, she was wearing red and black together; which was my favorite color combination.

I quickly turned away when I realized I had been staring at her. My heart was beating faster than normal, and I felt so silly. Suddenly a hand gripped my shoulder tightly and I almost jumped. Then I heard Emmett's booming laugh and relaxed, though I still had the beautiful girl on my mind.

"Ready to go, Cullen?" he said, socking my shoulder playfully.

I tried not to wince and rub it. "Sure," I said uncertainly, not really wanting to leave. Who knew if I ever would see that girl again? I didn't have the guts to tell the guys about it, even though I saw that Jasper was suspecting something strange about me. I reflexively turned around to glance at the girl, and saw her still looking at me. I snapped my head back around, cursing inwardly.

I didn't want any of the guys to comment on it, so I quickly stood and said, "Let's go then," trying to sound nonchalant.

They shrugged and followed me out of the club, but not before I could steal one last glance at the girl I had found myself so drawn to. She looked up and met my eyes, and her blush looked so lovely that I had to smile at her. I turned around again, damning my weakness. She must have thought I was some crazy stalker type, staring at her and smiling like a fool.

The next week was pretty normal. I spent most nights either in front of the piano or at Jasper and Emmett's place. I lived alone since none of them appreciated the sound of a great piano piece. Thursday evening, we were sitting in front of the TV of their apartment, watching some lame sitcom Emmett was obsessed with. He followed about five sitcoms, but Jasper and I were sworn to secrecy on the matter. It seriously was excellent blackmail material.

I decided to be very cool. "Wouldn't tomorrow night be a great night to party?" I asked casually.

"Sure," both guys agreed without giving it a second thought.

I glanced at them out of the corner of my eye. "We could go to that club from last weekend…"

Emmett, who had been laughing loudly and slapping his knee, stared at me. Jasper frowned. "Why do you want to go to a club, Edward?" he asked seriously.

Cover blown, cover blown, my brain screamed at me. "I just thought it had great atmosphere," I shrugged. "Besides, didn't Emmett find some blonde girl he was too scared to approach?"

"Dude, what the hell?" Emmett shouted. "I wasn't scared, alright?" He became silent. "One should respect such beauty," he finally whispered reverently.

Both Jasper and I stared at him. "What's wrong with you guys?" Jasper asked incredulously.

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After many incidents, we finally arrived at the same club as the week before. We hit the bar for a beer and then we sat down at the same table as last time. I tried to be discreet as I looked around for my mystery girl, but I couldn't find her anywhere. Too disappointed for my own good, I sighed and tried to have fun with my friends instead of thinking of her. I was doing pretty well, I had even convinced myself that I wouldn't have dared speak to her even if she had been here, and it really was much simpler this way.

Then, of course, I saw her. She was with two girls this time, one was beautiful with long blonde hair and the other was very attractive in a pixie-like way with short spiky black hair and who looked vaguely familiar. But none of them could even graze her beauty, my mystery girl. Her hair was completely curled this time, but it still 

hung long on her back. I swallowed as I took in her short but quite modest blue skirt. She had long thin legs and I could feel my stomach jump at the sight of them.

I suddenly realized that she was drunk. She was leaning on the blonde girl, laughing madly at something. I looked down and thankfully she was wearing black chucks. She probably wouldn't be breaking her ankles anytime soon. She didn't meet my eyes at all, they just sat down at the table I'd seen her at the last time. After a while, the small girl grabbed her by the hand and dragged her to the dance floor, where she started moving in the silliest dance I'd ever seen. I tried to keep from laughing but couldn't help myself when she started doing a really bad robot dance.

I suddenly realized that Emmett was gone and turned to Jasper. He was looking at the dance floor as well, and I could have sworn he was blushing. When I started to ponder whether I should begin to look for Emmett, he reappeared. He was cradling his hand, looking slightly panicked. He jumped up onto a chair and chugged down the half full glass of beer he'd left there before.

"Guys," he gasped and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "Shit, I just punched a bartender in the face."

"What?" both Jasper and I shouted.

"What the hell were you thinking?" I snapped. "Why did you do it?"

Emmett winced as I inspected his hand. It was just a bruise, nothing serious.

"He was flirting with that girl from last week, the blonde beautiful one," he muttered shamefully.

I slapped the back of his head reflexively. "Emmett!"

"But that's not why I punched him!" he defended himself quickly. "As soon as she turned away from him he kept doing these dirty gestures to the other bartenders… I saw it, and before I knew it I had punched him."

I tried to say something to let him know his behavior was wrong, but I couldn't find the words. I just shrugged and smiled at him half-heartedly.

Jasper cleared his throat. "Who is this girl, anyway?" he asked quietly.

"The most beautiful girl in the world," Emmett sighed heavily. "And she really isn't interested in me."

"Could you point her out?" Jasper asked, looking curious.

Emmett looked around and found her quickly. "Over there," he said dejectedly and pointed a thumb over his shoulder. I turned around in curiosity and saw the blonde girl I'd seen with my mystery girl earlier.

I gasped when I looked at the other patrons of their table and saw my girl. "Emmett," I hissed. "You have to go apologize to her."

"Why?" Emmett said, looking confused. "It's not as though that would make any difference."

Jasper leaned forward. "You could tell her you were only defending her honor. I've read that women love that sort of thing."

I looked at him with a sudden surge of affection. Only Jasper would not only read up on female behavior, but try to put the information at use in daily life as well. Emmett looked at me with a hopeless expression on his face.

"Go for it, man," I said, and allowed him to give me a rare high five.

He took a deep, steadying breath and left our table. I glanced over at Jasper. "How do you think he'll do?"

"From the looks of his girl of choice, he has a rough road ahead of him," he said grimly.

I nodded. Emmett wasn't known for taking the easy way out, though. Glancing over my shoulder, I looked at the girl who currently haunted my fantasies. She looked more intoxicated than ever, and I couldn't help but smile. She saw me looking at her and gave me a smile right back. Not being able to tear my eyes away from hers, I held her gaze for a couple of seconds before she suddenly winked at me. I could feel my eyes widen before I looked away, my cheeks probably glowing red. I was instantly happy that Emmett wasn't sitting at our table anymore, and Jasper seemed occupied with trying not to look at the pixie-like girl. I grinned at him.

Then I looked over my shoulder and met her eyes once again. They smoldered as they bore into mine. My God, I thought, she is trying to kill me, I know she is. I needed another beer if I was going to live through this.

I glanced once again. She smiled and gave me a little wave.

Okay, I'm going to need a shot or two.

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**Author's note: So that was a bit of backstory on the boys and Edward's view of his and Bella's first… meeting may be a strong word. They really are going to interact soon, I'm just having too much fun with this. Please review and make me a happy fanfic writer :)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's note: Thank you so much to my reviewers! Here comes another chapter. (And by the way, this is probably how long it'll take me to update from now on, with exceptions, of course.) Enjoy!**

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**BPOV**

That Saturday was spent on our living room couch, watching old movies and eating endless amounts of popcorn and chocolate. We didn't talk about the Jasper, Emmett or Edward at all, as we had come to the conclusion that we really shouldn't obsess. Especially Rose, who actually had contact with Emmett. Alice and I were very jealous, but we tried to cover it up as much as we could, and later that night our jealousy had reduced into simply pinching Rose's arm once in a while.

The Sunday went by, and as I walked to my only class on Monday, I realized that I should probably forget all about Edward. It's not as if we had exchanged any conversation at all anyway; why not cut it loose now and not get hurt at all? The thought almost made me cringe visibly, but I collected myself and started focusing on the Professor instead. I must remember that my heart was to be treated carefully, or I would trap myself in a situation I'd promised myself I'd never be in again.

After the lesson, I got in my truck – I had owned my big red truck since I was seventeen, and I loved it – and started the roaring engine. The Literati was just five minutes away from my school, and I parked on the street next to it.

"Hi Bella," Angela called to me from the table she was waiting as I walked in.

She was the only high school friend I had contact with, except Alice and Rose, of course. "Hey," I sighed heavily, tying my apron around my waist and picking up a couple of coffee mugs from an empty table.

I was working between noon and four today, as I did most days, and the shift always seemed to fly by. People were always very friendly, talking about books and asking questions about the place. I had worked there since my first year of college and had felt at home ever since.

When I only had an hour left of my shift, I was getting tired. I hadn't gotten much sleep last night, on account of Alice's dance practice in the living room. I looked around from behind the cash register and saw a table with a couple of empty coffee mugs. When I got out from behind the counter and strode over to the table, I walked straight into something hard. I could feel my shirt going warm and realized I had coffee all over it.

"Shit," I muttered, instantly looking down at it.

"Sorry," a male voice said, and I found myself quickly. Nothing's ever the customer's fault, I repeated the manager's motto to myself in my head.

I looked up and almost fell over in shock. It was him! It was Edward! Of course it was Edward, I told myself. Of course you're being clumsy the first time he sees you outside a club. He seemed to realize my balance problem and quickly steadied me with a hand on my lower back. He looked me over and seemed to fight a chuckle.

"I'm so sorry," I said nervously, grabbing the mug from him, and then I added automatically, "You'll get a new coffee on the house, of course."

"Thanks," he said, and it was in one of the most melodic and beautiful voices I'd ever heard. "But I wouldn't mind at all if you wanted to change your shirt first."

I blushed profusely and tried not to look at him. "If you take a chair at the counter, I'll be right with you."

He nodded, still smiling, and I turned around to stumble into the room in the back.

Why did these things only ever happen to me? I had just decided to never see him again, to make an effort not to be so charmed by someone I'd never even talked to, and what happens? He shows up where I work and pour coffee all over me!

I quickly changed into the only T-shirt I could find; it was two sizes to small and read 'The Literati' on the back. Then I just stood still for a moment, trying to collect my thoughts. Just be cool, I told myself. The poor guy probably doesn't even remember you anyway. No harm done.

Feeling a little more self-assured, I walked out to the counter, where he instantly smiled at me.

"Feeling dry?" he asked, grinning.

I raised an eyebrow. "_You_ poured it over _me_, you know."

"I know," he said apologetically. "I'm really sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going."

I waved a hand at him. "It probably would've happened with or without you. I'm kind of clumsy."

His eyes sparkled and I looked straight into them. I suddenly realized what I was doing and cleared my throat, blushing massively red. "What sort do you drink?" I asked, pointing at the menu board.

"Just black coffee," he answered, still looking straight at me.

My heart was pounding wildly as I poured him his coffee and gave it to him. He took a quick sip and looked down at the counter. I frantically looked around at the tables, but there was nothing to do anywhere. Angela had the place under full control. After a while, Edward looked up from the counter and at me.

"Do you…" he began, but stopped himself.

"Do I what?" I asked curiously. God, he was so beautiful. I wanted to rake my hands through his thick hair and kiss along his jaw line. Almost groaning out loud, I shook me head lightly to concentrate on his gorgeous face.

"Do you… remember me, at all?" he asked, sounding nervous.

I blinked. Of course I remembered him. Wait, did this mean he remembered me too?

"Sure," I said slowly. "From the club, right?"

He looked even more nervous now as he nodded. "I was surprised to see you here."

A part of me was disappointed, it would have been so amazing if he had known I worked here and come here just to see me. Wake up, Bella, I told myself. This boy is miles out of your league.

"I was surprised to see you too," I said dreamily, and then I added quickly. "Though I shouldn't have been, this is a coffee place, after all. People come and go all the time, and sometimes you recognize some of them and sometimes you don't. I mostly don't know them, but they're nice all the same."

He was suddenly trying not to laugh and I fought the urge to slap my forehead.

"Sorry," I said, leaning my elbows on the counter and hiding my face in my hands. "That was an excellent display of word vomiting."

"Impressive," he said, grinning. I snorted. Then he looked at his watch and jumped to his feet. "I have to go," he said, sounding stressed. I probably looked bewildered, because he just stood there for a moment before exiting the Literati quickly.

I sank down onto my elbows again and groaned. Could I have made myself a bigger fool in front of him?

But as I kept working my last half hour, I could feel my stomach flutter constantly.

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I drove home at ten past four and tiredly climbed the stairs up to our apartment. As soon as I had entered and closed the door behind me, I found myself pressed against it with Alice hanging around my neck.

"Rose is the most amazing person in the whole world!" she squealed and I gasped for air.

She seemed to realize that I was being strangled, because she let go of me and took a step back. I took off my boots and jacket and went into the kitchen, motioning for her to follow me. We sat down and looked at each other.

"Proceed," I said, waving out to her.

She began clapping her hands excitedly and I rolled my eyes.

"We're going to meet the boys," she said in a high voice.

"The boys?" I asked in total confusion.

"Emmett, Edward and _Jasper_," she swooned. "Rose has arranged a group thing with them!"

I blinked. I didn't know whether to feel happy or nervous. I was shocked when Rose suddenly walked into the kitchen; I hadn't even realized she was at home.

"It's nothing huge," she rolled her eyes at Alice. "It's just a get-together of people who might become friends someday."

"Yeah," said Alice sarcastically, "and you're not the least bit interested Emmett, right?"

"Correct," Rose sniffed. Then she patted my shoulder. "Aren't you glad, Bella?"

I groaned and hid my face in my hand. "I ran into him."

Alice squealed. "Where did you meet him?" she shrieked.

"I mean literally," I said in a suffering voice. "He accidentally poured his coffee all over me at the Literati earlier."

The kitchen went very silent. Then Alice cupped my cheek gently and said, "Maybe that means he likes you?"

Rose snorted with laughter. "Or that he _didn't_ like the coffee."

I glared at her. "Thank you so much for your support!" I snapped.

She shrugged. "Come on, Bella. You can get any guy you want if you just try a little. You're so dramatic."

Still glaring, but not knowing what to say, I lightly punched her in the arm. "What the hell?" she shrieked. "You guys need to stop hurting me just because I talk to that Emmett guy!"

"Yeah, yeah," said Alice and playfully kicked her in the shin. Rose looked furious but I could see her eyes shine with laughter. She whipped around and went into her room, slamming the door behind her.

"That Emmett guy," Alice repeated her, shaking her head slowly. "I heard her saying his name in her sleep last night, and today she calls him 'that Emmett guy'."

"At least it's more accurate than 'cute bartender guy's' nickname," I said helpfully.

Alice nodded. "I can't wait to meet Jasper," she suddenly squealed and clapper her hands again.

I could certainly wait a while before meeting Edward again, I told myself. Though I could feel my stomach flutter again, and I involuntarily started wondering how this group meet thing would turn out in the end.

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**Author's note: They meet! They speak! Can I get a hallelujah? No seriously, I know their conversation is totally lame, but they **_**have**_** just met each other, after all. They don't know they're soul mates and all that. Looking forward to the 'group meet thing'! Please review if you do, too!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's note: This was just a quickly written account of how Edward saw the incident in the Literati. Hope you like it even though it's really nothing special. **

**PS: This chapter is dedicated to **_**–Jessica-Bella**_** and **_**Hey-Hay13**_**, who both are excellent reviewers and wanted to see this from Edward's POV. Hope you approve! :)**

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**EPOV**

I had come to the conclusion that I was insane. That must be the reason for me pining – no, _lusting_ – after a girl I had never even talked to. That night at the club, she was so… well, she had been drunk, but she was also so unbelievably beautiful. She was blushing and laughing with her friends, and how had I reacted? Why, I had been reduced to a blubbering mess, of course. Emmett was booming with laughter every time he looked at me for days after that night. He really shouldn't talk, that Rosalie girl wasn't exactly hanging on his every move. They _talked_, though. That was more than what I had succeeded in doing with my mystery girl.

Bella. Her name was Bella. Not only was she gorgeous, she also had a gorgeous name. Why did God do this to me? I didn't know how to handle girls. I had been in a couple of semi-serious relationships, but they never wanted the same things I did. Those girls had been too shallow for me.

Maybe she was shallow too. I didn't know her at all, how could I know she wasn't? But then again, should I really even be thinking of her this way? No, it was best just to let her go. I didn't even know if I would ever see her again, for God's sake! Sure, Emmett was flirting with her best friend, but he was such a klutz with women that their relationship might not last the week.

Yes, I concluded. It's better to let her go.

All of this thinking had given me a head ache, and I realized I hadn't had my coffee today. I was on foot today since Emmett was borrowing my car for work, and I looked around me on the street. There was a coffee shop/book store that seemed good enough. I crossed the street quickly and stepped inside. It was pretty big for an independent store, but it still had that cozy feeling that only books could give. The walls were covered with filled book shelves and I eyed them quickly. They had all the classics, and I was impressed at all the first editions I recognized up there.

I ordered my coffee from a pretty and dark-haired girl who smiled politely at me. Grabbing my to-go cup, I turned around and was almost at the door when someone slammed into me. I tried to stop the coffee cup from tipping, but failed and it spilled all over the person who was currently pressed against me.

"Shit," I heard her curse in a small voice, and I almost smiled.

"Sorry," I said quickly instead, praying that she hadn't burned herself. I saw that she was wearing a white T-shirt saying 'the Literati', and realized that she worked there.

When she looked up at me, I suddenly saw who it was. My mystery girl, Bella. My heart sprang and jumped around in my chest as we stared at each other.

"I'm so sorry," she suddenly said, and in a more business like tone, "You'll get a new coffee on the house, of course."

The disappointment hit me in an instant. She didn't remember me. I was daydreaming about her just five minutes ago, and she didn't even remember my face. Now my heart felt dead in my chest.

"Thanks," I said, keeping control of my voice. "But I wouldn't mind at all if you wanted to change your shirt first."

Her cheeks turned a delicious shade of pink and she looked down at the floor. "If you take a chair at the counter, I'll be right with you."

I did as she asked while she made her way into the back room to change. The way life twists and turns sometimes, I mused to myself. Had I not been thinking about her so much when I was out on the street, I wouldn't have gotten a head ache and would not have gone into the coffee shop at all. What a terrible thought.

When she re-entered the room, I fought a gasp. She was wearing the tiniest T-shirt I had ever seen. I swallowed with much difficulty and focused on her face, trying frantically to smile.

"Feeling dry?" I almost whimpered, without even thinking about what I was saying. What the hell? Where did that stupid line come from? Why? _Why_?

I almost winced as she raised an eyebrow. "_You_ poured it over _me_, you know."

But I could hear the smile in her voice and relaxed instantly; well, as much as I could relax in this situation. I still felt the need to apologize to her, though.

"I know," I said, fighting the urge to cover her hand with my own. "I'm really sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going."

She waved her hand dismissively, saving me from humiliating myself by caressing it, and said, "It probably would've happened with or without you. I'm kind of clumsy."

I fought the urge to laugh out loud. Maybe she didn't like strangers laughing at her personality traits. I suddenly realized that we were staring at each other and that she wasn't looking away. Her hand was resting on the counter, just inches from mine. This was ridiculous, I had just met the poor girl for God's sake. I didn't even know if she remembered me or even if she could think of me as anything at all to her.

"What sort do you drink?"

I blinked quickly, trying to clear my thumping head. "Just black coffee."

She gave me a huge cup and I instantly took a sip, burning my tongue. To keep from spluttering, I looked down at the counter and tried to calm myself. I couldn't believe I was really sitting here in front of her. She was just as beautiful as she had been at the club. I had somehow even deluded myself into thinking that maybe – just maybe – I had overestimated my attraction for her; she _was_ kind of lanky and awkward. But now that I was right opposite her, I could only blame it all on stupidity. The girl was so damn beautiful I had to blink to keep my eyes from tearing up at the sight of her. She was looking around the coffee shop, probably making sure that everything was in order everywhere.

As I looked at her, I made a daring decision. I had to ask her. I _had_ to know.

"Do you…" I took a deep breath mid-sentence, "remember me, at all?"

Oh God, did my voice crack in there somewhere?

"Sure," she said slowly, probably raking her brain for some sign that she had ever seen my face before. "From the club, right?"

I nodded, feeling light and insanely happy. "I was surprised to see you here," I said, surprising myself, even though I really had been. It had been such a joyous surprise and I thanked every higher being that Emmett had picked today to borrow my car. I would have to give him some sort of gift later. Flowers, maybe? I knew he was a huge closet-fan of orchids.

"I was surprised to see you too," she said in an airy voice. "Though I shouldn't have been, this is a coffee place, after all. People come and go all the time, and sometimes you recognize some of them and sometimes you don't. I mostly don't know them, but they're nice all the same."

I tried to make any sense of what she had just said, but I couldn't understand a word. That was probably because I was staring at her lips move. Yes, that could be the reason. I almost laughed at how much this girl had enchanted me by doing so little.

"Sorry," she suddenly said and leaned against the counter. She hid her face in her hands and I almost protested out loud. No one should hide such an angelic face. "That was an excellent display of word vomiting."

I grinned; so _that_ was what that had been. It was too cute. "Impressive," I chuckled as she snorted.

Just as I was about to ask her how long she'd worked there, I accidentally caught a glance at my watch.

Shit, I was supposed to have met Emmett at home almost twenty minutes ago. I would have to get him some orchids on the way home for this one.

"I have to go," I said, jumping to my feet. She looked startled and I just stood there to stare at her for a moment. I didn't want to go and not know when I would see her again. My cell suddenly vibrated in my pocket and since I already knew who it would be, I ignored it and left the Literati.

As I ran down the street to the flower store, I had a very uplifting thought; I would simply have to take a detour to enjoy my daily coffee from now on.

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**Author's note: So that was Edward's view of their conversation. Next will be the group meet. Make me happy and review!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's note: Wow, I got a lot of wonderful reviews for the last chapter! Thank you so much, you really light my dreary day. I hope you'll like this one just as much. Here we go, the infamous (not really) group meet thing!**

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**BPOV**

"Alice," I groaned in frustration. "Don't eat all the popcorn, okay? That's the last bag in the apartment."

She looked up at me from the living room floor where she was flipping through our CDs and – as you may have understood – eating all the popcorn.

"I thought we had a pack with three bags?" she said confusedly through a mouthful of popcorn.

I glared at her. "And you ate two bags by yourself. How many does that leave, dear Alice?"

I only managed to read one sentence in my book before being hit in the face by a handful of popcorn. Shrieking, I dropped the book on the floor and jumped Alice. We began a vicious tickling war, screaming and laughing loudly.

I had just gotten the upper hand when Rose entered the room, putting on some earrings. "Girls," she sighed. "Stop behaving like children, you're ruining all the work I put into your hair."

Alice and I glanced at each other, smiling evilly. Rose suddenly realized what we were about to do, her eyes widened in fright and she turned around to sprint for the kitchen. We laughed at her retreating back, lying down on the floor and gasping for air.

"It's so funny to mess with her," Alice shrieked, hitting the floor with her palm.

I nodded and looked up at the ceiling. "Two more hours to go," I said quietly. "You nervous?"

She shook her head violently. "Why should I be? I know Jasper was made for me."

I couldn't understand how she could just_ know_ that when he hadn't even dared to say a word to her. It was so ridiculous of her to just assume that Jasper was her soul mate or something. It really was so immature, infuriating, ridiculous, weird, unfair –

"Don't be sad, Bella," she suddenly said, patting my arm and smiling at the ceiling. "Everyone doesn't know when they find the right one. It builds up for some people. I'm just too perceptive for my own good."

I turned to my side and pecked her cheek quickly. "You sure are."

She giggled just as Rose re-entered the living room, looking livid and resting her hands on her thighs. "If you don't get up off of that floor in five seconds I swear to God I will shave your heads in your sleep!"

"Geez, Rose," Alice chuckled as she jumped gracefully to her feet and tried to drag me up to stand on my big clumsy ones. "Take it easy, our hair is fine."

Rose sniffed, but her expression quickly softened and I could finally see that she was a little nervous about meeting Emmett again. "I think it's time for some wine, don't you?"

Alice and I both nodded and I followed her into the kitchen while Alice started the stereo on some rock CD she loves. Then we met in the kitchen and toasted with our white wine. We sat there at the kitchen table for a while, just talking and laughing like we always did when we were together. This night was particularly filled 

with laughter because we were so excited about what waited ahead. My stomach clenched constantly. I was so nervous I thought I might throw up all over the kitchen.

In only a matter of moments, I would see Edward again. He would be here in my home, touching the things I used every day and spreading his delicious scent all around. Hopefully a couch cushion or something would catch it so I could have it in my room to sniff for days. Oh God, I was such an insane stalker.

The doorbell rang then, and we all stared at each other with wide eyes. Then Rose flipped her hair over her shoulder and went to the door. Alice and I followed her – Alice danced and I stumbled – to greet them. When the door opened, there was a general uproar. Emmett boomed with laughter, bowing playfully to Rose and winking at her. She blushed and looked away, obviously trying to hide her smile.

"Hello ladies," he said in a ridiculous voice. "Anyone order room service?" We all laughed when he held up two six-packs of beer, and we could hear two low laughs coming from behind Emmett's huge frame. Alice and I glanced at each other.

"Come in then," Rose grinned – _grinned_ – and dragged Emmett into our hallway.

When Emmett's body left the doorway, I could finally see Edward. He was looking absolutely mouthwatering in black pants and a black shirt. I swallowed with difficulty when I noticed that he had left the top three buttons undone. His hair was as unruly as always, but it still looked so perfect that I almost groaned with the urge to drag my fingers through it. He looked really relaxed and cool, but when his eyes suddenly met mine, they sparkled brightly at me.

I turned away with difficulty when I heard Emmett changing the music to some weird and loud rap music that sounded very scary. Rose shouted at him to turn the damn noise off, but I heard a shriek and when I peeked around the corner I saw that Emmett had grabbed her and they were goofily waltzing around the living room.

"Let me guess, " I said, turning back to the others and trying not to look at Edward. "You've been drinking a bit before you came over."

Jasper chuckled. "Just a bit, though."

Alice looked delighted that he was talking and beamed brightly at him. He seemed to wear a constant blush. Edward looked at them and he seemed a little worried about something. I wanted to ask him about what could be wrong, but found that I simply didn't have the guts to do it. Not yet, anyway.

"Oh, come in!" I suddenly said when I realized that neither I nor Alice had invited them to step inside.

They both smiled politely and did as I had asked. When I made to take Edward's coat, our fingers brushed against each other and I don't care how cliché it sounds – it was like getting an electric shock. I almost gasped before quickly pulling myself together and putting his coat on a hanger. When I was done and turned around, we were alone. My heart started beating frantically as his eyes smoldered at me.

"I'm really sorry about the coffee thing," I stumbled out without thinking. Then I fought the urge to slam my head against the wall.

He almost smiled. "You're apologizing for the fact that I spilled coffee all over you?"

I was such an idiot. "Yes," I said uncertainly.

He just looked at me for a moment before smiling widely.

"Accepted," he grinned cockily before turning around and going into the living room to the others.

I laughed quietly at his faked bravado and followed him, shaking my head slowly. It was all just unbelievable.

An hour later, we were all huddled around the kitchen table and laughing as though we'd known each other for years and not – an hour.

"You can never guess what he did!" Emmett was saying in a loud and excited voice.

We all hung on his next words, wanting to know what the end of the story would be.

"He went right back to the old bat and gave her the umbrella!" he suddenly roared and the kitchen erupted into laughter.

I glanced opposite me to look at Edward, who had been the subject of Emmett's story. Edward caught me looking and smirked at me. I raised my eyebrows and feigned disinterest, making him smirk even more. Alice caught our little exchange.

"Let's play a drinking game," she said excitedly, clapping her hands and still looking at me.

I could feel my eyes widen and tried to signal that this was a very bad idea. She blatantly ignored me.

"I'm in," Emmett said, almost as excited as Alice. "Rosalie?" he asked uncertainly, glancing at her.

She looked at him. There was no way she was going to go along with this, Rose hated drinking games. "Sure," she said, shrugging, and I'm sure my jaw hit the table.

"Edward?" Alice enquired, almost jumping on her chair.

He met my eyes and I saw the challenge in them. "Of course I'll participate," he said in a dramatic voice, raising an eyebrow. Everyone chuckled and I bit my lip to keep from laughing.

Suddenly all eyes were on me. I tried to shrink in my chair; drinking games really weren't very good for me. I was a pretty sensitive drinker and when I had to drink, it mostly ended badly, just like the week before had done eventually. I looked around at the five pairs of eyes that were staring a hole in me, but stopped at the last ones. They were cutting into me in a most delicious way and I felt a tingle go up my spine.

"Let's do it," I hissed.

There was an outburst of general applause and I already regretted my decision.

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"Okay," Alice said and cleared her throat to get our attention. "Here are the rules of 'I've Never'. You say something along the lines with 'I've never ridden a bicycle naked' and if you haven't done it, you don't have to drink. If you have ridden a bicycle naked, you have to drink three sips of whatever's in your glass or can."

Everyone nodded and I already felt queasy. These games usually ended up consisting of only sexual questions, and I really didn't want to go there.

"I'll start," Emmett roared. Everybody jumped and mumbled their agreement. I could see that Alice was eyeing Jasper, and he was trying not to look back at her. He really seemed impossibly shy, and I hoped he wouldn't break Alice's heart.

"I'll be gentle in the beginning," he said, and then he winked at Rose and added, "as I always am."

She blushed and hit him in the arm, but he just laughed without wincing even a little.

"I've never kissed a stranger," he said, looking around at the rest of us.

Rose looked triumphant as she took three dainty sips of her wine while Emmett frowned. Jasper and Edward chuckled at Emmett's expression.

"My turn," Rose said. "I've never gone skinny-dipping in the ocean."

Edward and Jasper drank of their beers. We all gaped at them, and Edward almost spluttered.

"Not together!" he said frantically. Jasper just laughed and banged his hand on the table merrily.

Emmett winked at me and Alice. "Sorry girls, I would've warned you if I'd known."

Jasper instantly stopped laughing and blushed a deep red while Edward leaned over the table and smacked Emmett on the back of the head.

"That earns me a turn," Edward growled and glared at Emmett. Then he looked straight at me and gave me that devilish and gorgeous smirk that made me weak in the knees in under a second. "I've never been so drunk I've done the robot on a dance floor. In public, I might add."

Everybody roared with laughter as I glared at Edward and downed the contents of the beer he'd given me before the game began. Chugging wine wasn't pleasant and I was glad I had accepted the beer. Gasping and slamming the empty can against the table, I went back to giving Edward the death stare. He just chuckled and raised his beer, inclined his head toward me in a very sexy manner and downed his one, too.

By now, everyone was cheering and laughing and I blushed at the attention. I was beginning to get really tipsy and tried to clear my head by shaking it slightly. It kind of worked, so I looked up and got back into the game.

"Jasper," Rose said, inspecting her fingernails. "You go."

He looked a little bit more at ease with the group now than he had done earlier in the evening. "Er," he said, frowning. "I've never… bought twenty bouquets of orchids for myself."

The room went silent again as everyone looked around at each other in confusion.

"DUDE!" Emmett roared. "You promised never to tell anyone about that!"

"Just drink," Edward said, rolling his eyes. "What's so wrong about a manly man like you loving such a beautiful flower as the orchid?" he added sarcastically, and caught my eye when I let out a low chuckle.

Rose was laughing so much she was practically on the floor, and Alice was covering her mouth with a hand, looking intrigued. "Why orchids?" she whispered.

"Can we _not_ talk about this?" Emmett groaned, trying to pull Rose back to her chair. "Someone do a new one."

"Orchids!" Rose wheezed, leaning her head on Emmett's shoulder and looking close to sleep.

"I'll go," Alice said, trying to get back to the game. "I've never been in love."

There was an awkward silence as everyone glanced at each other. Rose sat straight in her chair in a second. I knew neither of us girls had been, we had a knack of always picking the wrong guy. I knew I had to gauge Edward's reaction, so I looked up, but he wasn't noticing me. He was frowning, looking at Jasper. I suddenly noticed Emmett was doing the same, actually looking worried.

Then, with a slightly quavering hand, Jasper lifted his beer and took three small sips.

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**Author's note: Dum dum dum! No, really, I think it is sort of a cliffhanger. It's not? Oh, well. Anyway, I hope you'll all be the wonderful readers you are and leave me a review!**

**PS: BTW, don't you all just love faux-cocky!Edward? I think he's such a tiger.**

**PS2: There will probably be a part 2 to this group meet thing.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's note: Wow, thank you all so much for your lovely reviews! I can't tell you how happy I am every single time I read a review from someone who appreciates the thought I put into this. I hope this chapter won't disappoint you, it was really hard to write and try to not have the characters become far too OOC. Hope I succeeded!**

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An incredibly awkward silence followed Jasper's action. Edward looked at Emmett with a look that clearly said "Damn," and Emmett answered with a similar glance. Rose was looking from Jasper to Alice, as though she had happened upon a particularly exciting TV show while just flipping through channels. Jasper was looking down at the table, but I caught him anxiously glancing at Alice every few seconds, his cheeks burning a bright red. Alice looked horror struck, and I couldn't help but feel sorry for her. Here she'd been thoroughly convinced she had found 'the one', even though they had barely spoken a word to each other, and now she finds out that he's already found someone he had thought was his 'one'. She was staring at the table, looking very confused and embarrassed. I discreetly put a hand on her shoulder blade, trying to offer her some sort of comfort. She let out a breath but didn't react any further.

"Emmett," Edward said suddenly. "Why don't you go next?"

I looked at him in gratitude, trying to convey with my eyes how much I appreciated him trying to change the subject. It might seem really ridiculous for this to be such a big deal, but I knew Alice and I knew that she had been a hundred percent sure that she and Jasper were going to be together. I didn't know how she felt about it now, or how Jasper had even felt to begin with, but I was sure that this wasn't good.

"Of course," Emmett said. He helplessly looked over at Rose. "Er…"

She rolled her eyes and leant in, whispering something in his ear. He quickly stroked her arm and chuckled.

"I've never had a crush on a cartoon character," he said, looking between me and Alice to find out who of us the sentence were meant for.

I fumed. Rosalie was close to death here, and I hoped she realized it. I quickly grabbed another beer, opened it and chugged down three large gulps defiantly. Edward laughed loudly and pointed at me.

"Tell me," he gasped between fits of laughter. "Tell… me… who!"

Alice was chuckling now and looked up, though her cheeks were still a bit red. "Robin Hood," she said airily.

Everyone except Jasper were laughing openly now. Rose looked at me with an eyebrow raised, her eyes sparkling with affection. "She was very much in love," she said, smiling at me.

I hid my face in my hands in frustration, but peeked between my fingers at Edward. He was grinning at me with some kind of emotion in his eyes. It was strong, but I couldn't decide if it was some sort of affection or just plain mirth at my pre-adolescent crush of choice. Suddenly I felt a hand cover mine and my heart jumped, but then I realized it was just Emmett.

"I'm sorry to have to tell you this, Bella," he said in a serious tone, "but Robin Hood is a fox. And he's not real."

I snapped my hand away and smacked his. "I wouldn't talk so much if I was you, _Orchid Boy_," I hissed, grinning evilly at him. Edward laughed and gave me an appreciative glance.

"What do you know," he said. "There are not one, but _two_ girls in this room who can hold their own against the charming man that is Emmett."

"There's got to be a first for everything," Jasper said in a low voice, his eyes stuck on Alice, who was pointedly looking away.

"I assume the first girl is me," Rose said, flipping her glorious hair over her shoulder.

"Of course," Edward nodded. "Alice has yet to prove herself, though."

Emmett grinned at her. "Do you come here often?" he said, winking in a clearly over exaggerated manner.

"No fair," Alice pouted at Edward. "He makes it too easy for me."

We all laughed, even Jasper let out a chuckle. After that, the drinking began to get a little heavier. We moved into the living room and started doing licorice shots. Rose even allowed Emmett to do a quick body shot on her while we all cheered him on. The air was tense between Alice and Jasper, though. I still thought maybe Alice was overreacting a little; Jasper actually seemed to be genuinely interested in her. So what if he had been in love with someone else before her? What did that actually matter? Did even something as strange and mysterious as soul mates exist at all? I glanced over at Edward, who was talking animatedly with Alice about chess. His beautiful brow was furrowed as he tried to explain a difficult move, his hands making delicate twists in the air. I suddenly had to fight a frighteningly strong urge to drag him off to my room and make him do other things with those pale hands. Just when I was having embarrassingly dirty thoughts about his gorgeous self, he turned and looked straight at me, giving me a very sexy grin. My heart stopped beating and I quickly thanked God Edward couldn't read my dirty mind. I looked over at Emmett and Rosalie, who were lounging on the same armchair, talking quietly to each other and laughing every now and then. My stomach churned with jealousy, and as I glanced at Jasper I saw that he was staring at Edward and Alice with much the same look in his eyes that I had.

What was I thinking anyway? Did I really have any proof that Edward might even like me? As I looked back on the time since I'd first saw him, I realized I hadn't gotten a single sign or indication that he has any other feelings for me than simply friendly ones. I felt embarrassed at this realization, thinking that I had read far too much into the situation. My chest hurt when I thought of how beautiful and funny and charming he was, and I wasn't any of those things. I was just plain old Bella, the girl every man wanted as a friend and nothing more. I could feel my eyes sting and quickly downed a whole glass of wine; something I usually never could manage without instantly throwing up.

My mind was getting kind of foggy, so I quickly put my wine glass on the couch table and went into the kitchen. I knew my drinking habits well and all I really needed was a big glass of water. I found a huge glass in a high cupboard and started to futilely reach for it. Whining, I went up on my toes and felt my shirt drag upwards a bit over my lower back. Never mind, I thought, everyone was in the living room. I started almost jumping in my quest to reach the glass. Then I heard a shuffling sound behind me and turned around in horror, gasping and pulling my shirt down at the bottom.

There was Edward, of course, leaning against the door frame. My cheeks were beet red when I looked into his eyes, which looked a bit darker than usual and burned into me with fierce intensity. I could see his jaw clenching and that his hands were balled into fists. When my eyes travelled up to his again, my stomach was tingling and my heart seemed to be flying around in my body. I heard him take a deep breath and before I even knew what was happening, he had closed the distance between us and had me pinned against the kitchen counter. I gasped when his eyes were suddenly a mere inch from mine. I could almost taste his delicious breath on my mouth and I was starting to breathe heavily. His arms were holding me prisoner on either side and I hoped he never would let me out. He started leaning closer and I closed my eyes in anticipation of what I _knew_, but couldn't believe, was coming. His wondrous lips were just grazing mine and I let out a soft moan of impatience.

"Edward," a voice suddenly said from the doorway. "Oh!"

We broke away and I almost groaned in protest. He hadn't even kissed me properly yet! I was going to murder which ever idiot was standing there at the door, they were going to die a very slow and painful death.

"Sorry," Jasper said, looking bewildered and very awkward. "I wanted to have a word with you, Edward, I really didn't mean to interrupt… anything."

Edward sighed heavily and almost shot me a glance, but seemed to change his mind at the last minute. "Is it really urgent?" he said to Jasper, looking frustrated.

"I would appreciate it," he answered quietly.

Edward looked at me now. "Sorry," he said in a very low voice. "I'll see you in a minute." Then he did the most amazing thing; he lifted his hand and caressed my cheek so lightly I almost couldn't feel it. Before I could regain full control and conscious thought, they had left me alone in the kitchen with my head spinning. I put my fingers lightly against my lips and felt them tingle.

I really needed to talk to Alice and Rosalie.

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**Author's note: Phew, that Edward is… far too hot for my own good. A thing that almost never gets said about the Bella/Edward relationship is that they are so damn **_**hot**_** together! They have such amazing chemistry, and I looove it. Hope you liked this chapter, I'll bet the next one is going to be even harder to write. Please review and tell me your thoughts!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's note: THANK YOU to all of my amazing reviewers, you guys are why I write this stuff and I L-O-V-E to hear from you. I had such a hard time not posting this chapter too quickly, since it just kind of wrote itself. And here I thought I would be struggling with this for days, hehe. Anyway, do my two favorite things now: enjoy and review!**

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**EPOV**

I was just describing to Alice the finer points of the Nimzowitsch defense when I noticed Bella leaving the living room. She was wobbling a little on the way, tripping over her own feet once or twice, but that might not be the alcohol's actions. Bella seemed to have some genetic malfunction in her balance centre. It was just one of the many things I found so irresistible about her.

I turned back to Alice, just to find her staring at me with a somewhat triumphant smile. "See something interesting?" she chirped faux-nonchalantly.

My cheeks went a bit warm and I shook my head. "What would that be?"

"Oh, I don't know," said Alice, drumming her fingers against her chin and looking thoughtful. "My roommate, perhaps?"

"Alice, you shock me," I joked, trying to hide my nervousness behind bad humor. "I would never do that to Emmett."

She looked confused for a moment, but then she burst into laughter and slapped my shoulder. "Wrong roommate, buddy."

I didn't answer her. What could I say? I had some kind of weird infatuation with her best friend, who probably didn't reciprocate my feelings. It wasn't a very sunny subject, to be perfectly honest.

When I turned my attention back to Alice, she was leaning toward me, whispering, "Go get her, tiger."

I blinked, suddenly terrified of this tiny creature before me. "What?"

"She's crazy about you, Edward," Alice said, nodding fervently. "And I know you're practically making wedding plans in your mind."

I gaped at her. What the hell? She was so out of line, I did not plan weddings! There would have to be a couple of years of a serious relationship first, and then we might talk about it. Perhaps I could get my mother's engagement ring. It would be an outside wedding, maybe just at twilight, and –

Oh shit, I was making wedding plans. Maybe I should talk to Bella before doing that? God, I was so ridiculous, it wasn't as though Bella wanted me anyway, I was just being pathetic and getting light years ahead of myself. Alice was still nodding at me to go into the kitchen to Bella, and on a split decision – probably brought on by alcohol – I decided to take her advice and stood up.

When I got to the doorway of the kitchen, I was just about to open my mouth and make my presence known to her, but stopped myself quickly. She was standing on the tip of her toes, trying to reach something in a high cupboard. My mouth went dry when I suddenly realized that her shirt had ridden up to reveal almost half of her creamy white back. My hands positively itched to make contact with the beautiful skin, but I clenched them defiantly. When she started to jump up and down in frustration, I deflated and leant against the doorway, my heart beating furiously. How did this girl have such a strong effect on me? It was just a patch of skin for God's sake, she wasn't stripping or anything. My heart sped up. I really shouldn't think such thoughts in public. I realized that she seemed to have heard my movement behind her, because she froze and turned around quickly while pulling her shirt down frantically. I would have apologized and left her alone, but something in her eyes stopped me from doing anything.

Her cheeks were a blossoming red and she was breathing rather heavily. Her eyes were a little dimmed over, probably from the drinking, and gave her a very mystical aura. I realized she was looking me over, from my face, down to my clenched fists, and back up to my face. When she looked at my mouth and bit her own lip, something inside me snapped. Without a single coherent thought, I closed the distance between us in two strides and captured her against the kitchen counter. Her chest was pressed against mine and our noses almost touched. I met her eyes and saw infinite amounts of lust and other inexpressible things there. I leant forward, intent on finally tasting her dark lips. She let out a small whimper that made tingles go up and down my spine, and I could feel our lips grazing each other. Soon I would know what heaven felt like, it was so close to my grasp and –

"Edward," I heard a voice call my name from miles away. "Oh!"

I didn't even recognize the voice, couldn't tell if it even was male or female, I just cursed its existence. I had been so close to Bella, to finally have her in some way, and this fool had destroyed everything. I sighed and let Bella go, feeling a little ashamed of having kept her prisoner between my arms. When I turned around, I saw Jasper standing in the doorway, looking very awkward and apologetic.

"Sorry," he said, looking down at the floor. "I wanted to have a word with you, Edward. I really didn't mean to interrupt… anything."

I let out a deep sigh of frustration and almost looked over at Bella. I changed my mind at the last second; I didn't want to become even more frustrated. I would never be able to leave if I looked at her at that moment. I met Jasper's panicked eyes instead. "Is it really urgent?" I asked him, though I knew that it was. He wouldn't have stayed if it hadn't been.

"I would appreciate it," he said quietly, and I thought I knew what this was about. And I was going to be there for him to talk to.

I finally turned to Bella. Her dark eyes were on me and they looked very confused but also lidded over. "Sorry," I said and I meant it with every bone in my body. "I'll see you in a minute."

Then I did the most stupid thing; I couldn't contain myself from touching that incredible blush that seemed to permanently color her cheeks, so I caressed it lightly with the back of my hand. When she let out a soft gasp, I realized what I was doing and dropped my hand. I quickly ushered Jasper out of the kitchen in my frenzy to get out of there and away from the poor girl. The embarrassment was finally hitting me in waves all over my internal organs. Why did I have to go and practically molest her over nothing more than a little skin and a lip bite? I realized that I had ruined everything, and all that I could hope for in relationship with Bella was that she might not hate my guts. Everything else was out of the question, and all because of my own stupidity and lack of self-control.

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Jasper led me into the bathroom and locked the door carefully behind us. I sat down on the girls' dirty clothes basket and sighed, dragging my hands through my unruly hair.

"Wow," Jasper said. "You and Bella were kissing in there."

"We weren't," I answered. "But we were about to." And I gave him what could only be qualified as a death glare. He squirmed under my scrutiny.

"I'm sorry," he said, not looking straight at me. "I didn't know she was in there with you."

I shook my head and tried to smile at my best friend. "It's alright, Jasper. I know you didn't do it on purpose."

He nodded, looking relieved, and sat down on the closed toilet next to the basket I was currently residing on. I saw his mouth open and close as he tried to get out something.

"How can I help you, Jasper?" I said, trying to elicit some sort of conversation from him. I _had_ paid a pretty hefty price just so that he could talk to me, after all.

"It's about Alice," he finally got out, rubbing his face with his hands.

"What isn't?" I scoffed and chuckled. Jasper glared at me and I promptly took his warning and shut up.

He turned away from me again, still looking mightily pissed, before relaxing and groaning, "_Why _did we have to play that insanely daft drinking game?"

"Because your oh-so-dear Alice wanted to," I shrugged. "It is pretty unfortunate, though, I have to agree with you there."

"I know!" Jasper groaned. "And why couldn't I have just lied and let my beer be well left alone when she said…" he trailed off, gesturing weakly.

"I've never been in love?" I said helpfully and got another glare in return.

"Yeah," he said, visibly deflating.

"And you have been in love?" I asked, though I already knew the answer.

"Yes," he said tightly, looking at the bathroom floor.

"Is it in any way possible that you might be in love right now?" I asked innocently, staring at the wall opposite me.

"Maybe," he pouted.

"Oh, come on, Jasper!" I suddenly shouted, startling even myself. "You know you love her, you've been hanging around my school for almost two years now!"

"So?" Jasper countered. "Maybe I just want to see you? Forgive for wanting to see my best friend and hear him play the piano, God forbid I –"

I interrupted him, standing up and pulling my hair in frustration. "But you are almost never there to see me, Jasper. You're trying to catch a glimpse of Alice, and you know it."

He looked horrified. "You knew?" he hissed with wide eyes. The world had apparently gone lopsided for my poor friend.

"Of course I knew, even Emmett knows and he's not exactly quick about these things, as you already know," I said, rolling my eyes.

Jasper sighed heavily and pinched the bridge of his nose. "This is bad, Edward, really bad."

I sank down onto the basket again and put a consoling hand on his shoulder. "All of this is very hard. I don't know what is going on with Bella, at all. I felt like I kind of attacked her earlier in the kitchen."

"But you like her, don't you?" he asked, still not looking at me.

"Of course I do," I said fervently. "Sometimes I think I like her a little too much. I mean, we haven't really talked much. It's just like this intense connection that I'm helpless against and it's pulling me closer and closer to her –"

I noticed him gaping at me like I was insane and cleared my throat. "It's really cool," I said, trying to act nonchalant. "But I have no idea if she feels the same. At least you can tell Alice really does care for you."

He looked up at me hopefully. "Do you really believe that? You don't think she'll think I'm a stalker when she hears how long I've… observed her?"

"Observed?" I asked after a moment's silence, trying not to chuckle out loud.

Jasper blushed profusely. "I like it when she dances."

I couldn't contain it, I started laughing. Jasper glared at me yet again. "Okay, that's it," he said, standing up to leave the bathroom. "We are done discussing my private love life. Thank you, Edward, for your kind help."

I was still laughing as he opened the door, but when I saw the people on the other side of it, I instantly stopped and gasped instead.

There stood Rosalie, Alice and _Bella_.

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**Author's note: Oh my God! Oh my God! Did they hear? How much did they hear? Oh my God!**

**The official answer is that I'm the only one who knows. insert evil laugh here Review, my friends. Review.**

**PS: I have over 100 reviews! Wooot!**

**PS2: I have over 80 Story Alerts! Yaaay!**

**PS3: I'm really sorry about this ridiculous AN, but I'm oh so tired.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's note: Oh God, this chapter is almost 3,000 words! This story is making me insane, I never write chapters that long; I didn't even know I was capable of it. Anyway, thank you all so much for your reviews on the latest chapter, I hope you will be pleased with this one and that you'll review when you've finished reading it.**

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**BPOV**

As I dazedly made my way back into the living room of our apartment, I realized that neither Edward nor Jasper were there. They were probably in one of our bedrooms, trying to have their private talk, I thought. Emmett was over at the stereo, though, trying furiously to pull off the duct tape Rosalie had secured it with to stop him from changing the CD to anything that even resembled rap. The stereo was currently blasting out something that could only be described as pink noise. It was most probably an old Britney album. I would have laughed at poor Emmett's predicament if I hadn't been so thoroughly bewildered by what just had happened in the kitchen.

Edward had almost kissed me. He had pulled my body against his, fires raging behind his eyes, and he was about to kiss me. I couldn't blame Jasper for interfering - how could he have known what was going on? – but I did blame myself for not grasping the opportunity to kiss him immediately. When would I ever get the chance to again? Probably never, since I was such a chicken. I also realized that I shouldn't count on Edward having any feelings at all for me, it could have been just a drunken mistake. He accidentally saw some skin, blood rushed south and he reacted on it. That could be the whole story. My heart clenched and I could feel my stomach drop to my feet. That was probably the whole story. Why was I fooling myself anyway? There was no way that such a gorgeous and breathtakingly beautiful man as Edward was going to fall for plain old Bella. Not to mention that he was intelligent, funny and very well-mannered. You could probably say that he was the perfect man. Damn it.

I slumped onto the couch between Alice and Rosalie. Rose didn't even look my way, Emmett's war with the stereo had her full attention and she was chuckling endlessly. Alice smiled at me but quickly turned back to the window. I knew she couldn't see anything, it was pitch black out, so what was she staring at? I heard her sigh heavily and I realized that she was thinking about Jasper. Letting my hand rest lightly on her shoulder, I sighed with her. We really didn't have any luck at all today.

"I'm fine," Alice said, nodding her head bravely. She was so – mellow. So not Alice, at all.

"No, you're not," I said.

She smiled half-heartedly. "I will be, though. There's more fish in the sea, right?"

But I knew that there wasn't. Not for Alice, and not someone as special to her as Jasper. It was almost weird how he had gotten so attached to him. I guessed that for some people, that sort of connection came easily with someone they wanted to be with. Though that wasn't completely right either; Alice had never been like this with a guy before. In fact, she had almost never even been interested in a guy before. She had had a few boyfriends, but it had never been serious. It had mostly been me and Rose trying to help her get one since we had boyfriends ourselves.

I didn't say any of this to Alice. "Right," I said, trying to sound reassuring.

She smiled at me again, with a little more conviction this time. "Come with me to the bathroom?" she asked, grabbing my hand in her tiny one and tugging on it.

I chuckled. "Sure."

She pulled Rose with her as well, shouting something quickly about "Girl talk!" and Rose had to surrender. We left a still struggling Emmett with our poor stereo, and made our way to the master bathroom. Alice said something that made me laugh, but she quickly hushed me when she grabbed the door handle.

"Oh my God," she said, shocked. "There's someone in here!"

She was just about to knock loudly, when I grabbed her hand. "It's just Edward and Jasper, silly."

Rose sighed. "Can someone please tell them to hurry up? I don't want to miss when Emmett realizes I taped the wrong gap on the stereo."

Alice and I laughed silently. Poor Emmett would have his hands full with handling Rosalie, it seemed.

"No," I said, when Alice again made to knock. "There's no harm in listening a little, is there?"

Both my best friend stared gaping at me and I blushed, waiting for the outraged shouts that I was sure would come. Imagine my surprise when they both clapped me on the back.

"Excellent, Bella," Alice said, winking at me while Rose gave a particularly hard pat on my back.

Trying not to choke, I focused on listening. I did feel slightly guilty, though the alcohol in my bloodstream took well care of most of it.

"… _you can tell Alice really does care for you._"

It was Edward's voice. I almost gasped and saw Alice blush furiously in my peripheral vision.

"I can't believe they're making fun of me," she whispered, angry tears threatening to fall from her eyes. Rose and I grabbed one of her hands and squeezed it consolingly. I had just opened my mouth to suggest we leave when _Alice shushed me. Shrugging, I turned my attention back to the closed door._

"… _she'll think I'm a stalker when she hears how long I've… observed her?_"

Observed? What? My alcohol-muddled brain frantically went into work, trying to put together the pieces of a puzzle I obviously didn't know I had been missing. I could hear Alice's sharp intake of breath next to me.

"_I like it when she dances_," a very small voice floated through the door.

Swallowing a shocked laugh, I turned to Alice. She looked like she was about to faint. I quickly put my hand on her back to try to steady her and put my other one on her cheek. Her eyes were wide as saucers and Rose came over to the other side of her with a worried grimace. "What the hell happened to her?" she snapped in a nervous tone.

"How would I know?" I snapped back, then I called Alice name to get her attention, without any luck.

Just then, the door opened and I felt more than saw Jasper freeze in the doorway. Alice eyes focused on him and her shocked face cracked into a smile. She shrugged our hands off her and took a step closer to Jasper, who still looked dumbstruck.

"Alice," he said in a cracking voice. He looked so miserable that I had to feel sorry for him. "Alice, I'm so sorry, I don't know what to say –"

But Alice was standing right in front of his towering frame now. He looked down at her in complete confusion. She slowly lifter her hand and traced the outline of his lips with her index finger, then she let the other hand creep to rest on the back of his neck. He looked amazed when she tugged his head down and stood on her toes 

to touch her lips with his. Jasper's absurdly handsome face tightened into the most blissful expression I had ever seen as he responded to Alice's soft kiss, and I suddenly felt an urgent need to look away and give them some privacy.

Edward was standing behind Jasper, looking shocked and a little uncomfortable, and my eyes instantly travelled to meet his. He looked genuinely happy for Jasper, that much I could see, but there was something else there as well; something I didn't want to get my hopes up about. I had been hurt before and romance was a vicious thing when it became mixed with alcohol. I tore my eyes away from his and nodded my head, signaling that he should follow me into the living room. He pressed himself through the bathroom doorway, trying not to disturb Jasper and Alice's moment, and then I could feel him behind me. His hand hesitantly rested on my lower back as we made our way to join Rose and Emmett in the living room. I blinked.

Firstly, I hadn't even noticed that Rose had left the hallway before we had. Secondly, she was not exactly in an appropriate position. Emmett was sitting in one of the armchairs while Rose was on his lap, straddling him and kissing him fiercely. I blinked. I had known Rosalie all my life, but I had never seen her like this before. Whenever I had seen her kiss a guy, she had always been kind of cold and uninterested, like she had better things to do. But now, she was throwing herself into it with vigor, letting her long blonde hair cascade over Emmett, who grunted when she moved her pelvis even the slightest bit. His hands were running up and down her backs, stopping to rest on her backside. I blushed deeply and turned around to storm out, but only succeeded in slamming into Edward's hard chest. He looked down at me, probably as shocked as I was, I didn't really notice in my hurry to leave the room.

I rushed into the kitchen and leant against the refrigerator. After taking a couple of deep breaths I groaned in annoyance and pulled at my hair. The alcohol was starting to leave my body and I didn't like the thoughts and memories that were hitting me one by one. When I had gotten my mind somewhat under control, I looked up and saw that Edward was leaning against the doorway yet again. He didn't look passionate this time, he only looked worried.

"What's wrong, Bella?" he frowned, folding his arms around his broad chest.

I looked away from him and took a deep breath, intent on keeping away the angry tears that threatened to fall from my eyes. "It's nothing," I said in a weak voice. "I'm fine." But my voice cracked on the last word.

"Seriously," Edward said, and he took a few tentative steps toward me. "You can tell me, Bella."

I sighed and met his eyes again. He pulled out one of the kitchen chairs and gestured towards it. I rolled my eyes defiantly, but sat down anyway. Like I wouldn't do anything he asked me. He didn't say anything as I made myself comfortable, twirling my thumbs and looking anywhere but at him. Finally, I couldn't handle him staring at me with such intensity any longer.

"I'm jealous!" I snapped, throwing my hands in the air and feeling like a drama queen. Then I repeated in a low voice. "I'm jealous, okay?"

He looked genuinely shocked, and he didn't say a word in response. I heard him take a small breath and he slowly rubbed his hands together. It looked like a nervous habit, and I stored it away in my brain. I wanted to know everything I could about Edward. The thought reminded me of my troubled reasoning, and I sighed.

"I'm jealous because Alice has apparently found the love of her life or something, Rose has found the playtoy of her life, and here I sit; plain old Bella, drunk and lonely again." I put a hand to my forehead and groaned. "Make that hung over and lonely," I corrected my earlier statement.

He didn't laugh or even chuckle, he just looked distraught, looking around the kitchen in frustration. I could see that he mouthed something, and I couldn't help but ask him what it was.

"Plain old Bella," he spat out, still not looking at me, and I felt my heart being pierced. "You're being absurd."

Anger welled up inside me where it earlier had been tears. "And why the hell am I being absurd, Edward?" I said coolly.

He looked at me with strangely intense eyes, they were almost black, and then he softly entwined hands on the table. "You're neither plain nor lonely, Bella," he mumbled, never broking eye contact.

He sounded so sincere that I couldn't do anything but nod numbly. His face was so angelic with its hard lines and angles, and I longed to run my fingers along his prominent cheekbone, just to feel the pale skin that stretched over it. His eyes seemed to burn into me, he wanted so much for me to believe what he was saying. I couldn't help but let his beautiful sentiment sink in a little and rejoiced in its sweetness. How could anyone so sincere lie about something so important?

I smiled warmly at him and thanked him with a squeeze of my hand. He squeezed back and gave me a gorgeous lopsided smile which would have me shaking at the memory for days. I didn't want to do anything but kiss him at that moment, and I thought I could see a flicker of a similar wish in his eyes, just before Emmett entered the kitchen.

I hadn't realized that Edward and I had been leaning towards each other over the table, but when Emmett grinned at us, I immediately sank back against my chair and let go of Edward's hand.

"Dude," he grinned appreciatively at Edward. "Am I interrupting something? Should I leave the two of you alone for a bit?"

Edward let out a low growl of annoyance; and the general sexiness of it shocked me. "Actually, I think we should be leaving," he said to Emmett, glancing at his watch.

Emmett shrugged, but I saw the disappointment in his face. "Sure, I'll call a cab. Be ready in five."

Edward mumbled something unintelligible in response and Emmett left the kitchen, probably to say goodnight to Rose. There was still no sign of Alice or Jasper. Edward sighed.

"I guess I better go tell Jasper we're leaving soon," he said, mostly to himself. I nodded in understanding.

"I've had fun tonight," I said weakly. Fun was a strong word for what this evening had been. More appropriate ones had been long, confusing, dramatic, weird, drunken, and absolutely and utterly amazing.

He grinned widely at me. "Yeah," he said, nodding slowly. "It was… fun."

I caught the implications beneath his words and tried not to blush. After a minute's silence, I saw him cringe in his chair out of the corner of my eye. I looked up at him, wondering he felt pressured to stay in the kitchen with me.

"I wanted…" he said, and then he cleared his voice. "I wanted to ask you something."

I felt my eyes go wide. "Ask away," I said in a high voice.

"Well, as I said earlier, I had a good time tonight, and as I also implied; I find you very… appealing." I blushed profusely at his words, happier than I had been in a long while. "My point is that I would very much like to trade cell phone numbers with you."

He sounded so formal and almost snobbish that I had to bite my lip to keep from chuckling. His eyes shot to my lips. "I like that," he said in a low voice. I pretended I didn't hear; now wasn't really the time for me to lose control and jump him.

"I'd love to trade numbers," I said, trying not to smile too wide.

His stiff face softened into that crooked smile, the one that made me almost swoon with lust. He was very dangerous to a girl's thought process, I could already tell that, I thought as I shook my head slightly to clear it.

That night, after a good hour of squealing with my roommates, I lay in my bed and thought about the night. I was having a hard time not to be nervous about the next day already, and when I finally fell asleep it was with a small smile on my lips and the promise of a text message on my mind.

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**Author's note: Wow, my hands really hurt from typing now. Aw, Alice and Jasper are so damn cute together. I love them so much. And Edward, can't you just imagine him being all formal when he asks for Bella's number? Can I have an Edward, please?**

**Anyways, so the group meet thing is officially over. Did it live up to your expectations? What do you think will happen next? Be cool, review!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's note: It's been too long, I know! THANK YOU FOR ALL THE GREAT REVIEWS FOR THE LAST CHAPTER. I am falling in love with each and every one of you guys.**

**I have this really boring after-school job where I have a lot of down time, so today I figured out the complete outline of the next three chapters, and I'm so excited! You all have to review as fast as you can so I can post the next one, because I can't wait to show it to you. Hope you like this one, I really don't know if I'm happy with it.**

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**BPOV**

The next week wasn't exactly the happy event I had expected. I didn't hear a single word from Edward, even though he'd said we would hear from each other soon. Fear was starting to take hold of me. Maybe I had misinterpreted the whole situation? He could just want us to be friends, had I really gotten any clear proof that he wanted more? Sure, he had almost kissed me, but he had been kind of drunk at the time. I didn't know exactly how drunk though, since I hadn't been exactly sober myself, but I knew that those sorts of things tend to happen under the influence of alcohol. The memory of his strong arms encircling me, how sweet his breath was on my face and how his magnificent eyes bore holes into me was overwhelming. How someone as beautiful could exist in my presence was beyond me.

Trying not to obsess too much about it, I decided a fun and relaxed Saturday with my girls was in order. The week had been pretty busy, I had been working some extra shifts at the Literati, so I didn't feel like I'd seen my favorite people in the world enough. This idea didn't turn out as well as I had planned, though, since they both were as obsessive and nervous about the boys as I was. After a couple of hours of trying to watch a movie, Rose turned off the TV. Alice and I both continued to stare at it, not even realizing that Rose had turned it off.

"This is unacceptable," Rose snapped, dragging her fingers through her soft hair. "Simply unacceptable."

"What is?" I said, finally understanding why the sounds of the TV had ceased.

"This," she said, waving her hands in our general direction. "Us. We're being pathetic."

Alice grinned. "I'm not," she said smugly. "I've been text messaging Jasper all week."

"And that's not pathetic _how_?" Rose raised a perfect eyebrow at her.

Alice narrowed her eyes and folded her tiny arms across her stomach, pouting defiantly. I had just about succeeded in not laughing at her childish expression when Rose suddenly turned to me.

"And what are you smiling about?" she scolded me. "You're just as bad as Alice, if not worse!"

"How am I worse?" I asked incredulously. "I haven't heard from Edward all week." It hurt to hear the fact out loud.

"Exactly," Rose sniffed. "You're being ridiculous! Why must he be the one to call first? Because he's the guy? I thought you were somewhat of a feminist, Bella."

I suddenly felt the need to defend myself. "It's not because he's the guy! Honestly, I'm not that old fashioned, you know that." Rose rolled her eyes. "It's just… the way he said it made me believe that I would hear from him, not the other way around. I don't want to be a pain if he's changed his mind or something."

Rose just snorted and I didn't know how to interpret it. That was when I realized that I had something to fight back with. "I don't remember you answering any of Emmett's calls, even though you two got very close on our couch," I said smugly. "Pathetic? I think so."

"Oh, shut up," Rose almost blushed. I say 'almost' because Rose's blushes don't really count as blushes. They're more like some cute pink coloring on her cheekbones, defining them even more. Not like my red splotchy nightmares of blushes.

Alice was watching us as though there was a game on, snapping her head between us.

"Shut up?" I said, getting a little upset. "Why is it that you can call me and Alice pathetic while you're the queen of cool? Why don't you get the same comments and criticism as everyone else in this household? Do you really think you're better than us?" I didn't know where this all came from, I didn't really mean half of it. I knew that Rose didn't think herself any better than me and Alice, in fact, sometimes I thought she saw herself as below us. Which was ridiculous, of course.

"Because I gave in too easy, okay?" she suddenly shouted, standing up in exasperation. "I made out with Emmett far too soon after meeting him, and now he's gotten a taste of the physical stuff he's not going to want anything more!"

Alice and I were embracing her in under a second, whispering that she shouldn't be stupid and that Emmett should be lucky to get any time with her. I mumbled that I was sorry into her hair, and she nodded that she felt the same remorse. After a minute or two, Rose got herself together enough to pull away from us. The three of us just stood there for a while, not looking at each other. The silence was comfortable, but heavy.

"Let's go out," Alice said suddenly, her eyes gleaming.

Rose and I groaned simultaneously. "You're not serious?" I said, shaking my head. "No way, I'm not up for it."

But Alice knew us far, far too well. She knew exactly how to let her face fall into a deep frown with pouting lips that just shook a little. We were getting ready for a night out in under a minute.

Still feeling uncertain about this, I decided to dress pretty casual. An old pair of baggy jeans and a tank top would do, I thought. I even put on a long golden chain to look a bit more dressed up, but I didn't go any further. My dark hair hung in waves down my back, and I decided not to do anything about that either.

I had just given myself the once-over in front of the full body mirror that hung on the wall of the hallway between my room and the master bathroom when Alice found me and gasped.

"Bella, I do not believe you!" she shrieked. Then she pushed me back into my room, with far too much force for someone so extremely tiny, and headed over to my meager closet. Thirty minutes later I was standing in front of the mirror again, but this time wearing a navy blue dress with a far too generous cleavage for my liking. Alice had even accentuated it with my long golden chain, and that wasn't even the worst part; she had made me wear heels. She apparently wanted me dead.

"Perfect," Alice said proudly, giving my butt a quick slap and bouncing away to find her purse. Rose popped her glorious head out of the door of her room and rolled her eyes after Alice, making me chuckle. What would I do without these girls?

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We went to a different club this time, not wanting to accidentally run into the guys. This particular night was all about not being pathetic and, in my case at least, wait around for a phone call that apparently never would come. My stomach crawled at the thought of not seeing Edward again. Why was life so unfair? Why couldn't I look like Rose, maybe then Edward would like me. I totally understood why he wasn't interested, I looked so blah. Plain old Bella. I almost chuckled when I remembered when I had called myself that to his face. He was such an amazing man, and I now understood that he was far too good for me.

After a couple of shots and general shouts of "Boys suck!" the party was on. All three of us had decided to not think or talk about the boys all night. It felt like that would be very good for us, to get over all the obsessions. I drank carefully though, not at all feeling like being intoxicated. Somehow, Alice managed to trick me into dancing anyway. The dance floor was thick with bodies that melded together and grinded against each other. It kind of made me think of Edward, which was really weird. I imagined that I was dancing with him, holding him close and feeling the whole of his amazing body against mine. I was really getting into the dance, and when three guys joined Rose, Alice and I, we all shrugged and let them. A blond young-looking guy seemed to favor me, and it took all of three seconds before his hands were on my waist. I frowned slightly, but let him keep them there for a while at least.

_Look_, I thought to myself, _I don't need Edward. Not at all. I'm dancing with someone else and I'm having a fabulous time._

Ha.

I suddenly realized that the guy was shouting something in my ear. "What?" I shouted back.

"I'm Mike," he repeated and I could feel the smell of liquor on his breath. "Mike Newton."

"Bella," I answered, trying to keep my nose away from his breath.

Looking around, I noticed that his friends were dancing separately with Alice and Rose. They both looked like they wanted out; Alice was staring around for something – I had no idea what – and Rose was trying to stop the guy from putting his hands on her butt, looking as though she was constantly sighing. We danced for a little while, I mostly closed my eyes and thought of Edward. Rose was right; I was so pathetic. This Mike guy was getting a little too close for my comfort when I felt the hands he had rested on my waist slightly travel downward. When his hands grazed my bottom, I tried to lightly push him away, hoping that he got the gist of it. He didn't seem to even notice though, and when he gripped my buttocks, I shouted "No!" but he didn't care about that either.

When I was just getting ready to take a punch at him, he was suddenly gone. I gasped and looked around in confusion and gratitude, and my heart just about stopped.

"Edward," I whispered. There he was, in all his glory, and he looked _furious_.

He had the back of the Mike guy's shirt in a death grip and leaning so close to him that their noses almost touched. He was hissing something that made Mike's face turn paler and paler, but I couldn't catch a word of it over the loud music. When my shock faded somewhat, I looked around. Emmett was in front of Rose, his back to her, with his arms out to keep her behind him. He was growling darkly at the guy she had been dancing with, and the guy seemed to get his point because he was gone in a blink, looking terrified. I would be too, to be honest. Alice and Jasper had left the dance floor and was off to the side, Jasper was stroking Alice's hair softly and whispering to her.

I felt Edward come to stand next to me and looked at him in awe. He was the most beautiful man I had ever seen, it was like he had fallen off a cloud and landed perfectly right in front of me. His hair was as wild as ever and he was wearing a plaid shirt and black jeans. I could almost feel my mouth water when I saw the stubble that covered his chin. There were no words for how gorgeous he was, and here he stood before me, breathing heavily and still looking pretty furious.

"I was just about to punch him, you know," I defended myself for some reason. "I had everything under control."

He snorted, but in a beautiful way somehow, and his eyes softened slightly. "Yeah, that's evident."

I grumbled slightly, but was too nervous to say anything. So there we stood, in the middle of a crowded dance floor, trying not to stare at each other. I felt like the biggest idiot in the world. Then I almost jumped when I felt his hand under my chin. He gently pushed my face up so that my eyes could meet his.

"Would you like to dance?" he mouthed. I nodded, still in awe of his beauty.

He put his hands on my upper arms, brushing them gently up and down while pulling me closer. I stopped breathing when I could feel the heat of his body and how he started to move. It was a slow and sensual dance, and he drove me crazy by lightly dragging his fingers over my back and up to my neck and down again, while brushing his chest against mine enticingly. It almost felt like some kind of foreplay, I thought as the heat between us heightened considerably when his fingers touched the small of my back, almost travelling further down before disappearing up my spine again. I was practically coming undone by the time he outlined my lip with a finger and all thoughts had left my head as I leaned closer to him, intent on tasting him.

He stopped me with a small shake of the shoulders. I opened my eyes dazedly to look at him in confusion. His eyes were almost black with some emotion I didn't recognize, and he was breathing rather heavily. I put my hand on his hard chest, curious to hear his heart beat. It was beating erratically, just like mine, and I almost groaned with want.

"Let's get some air," he whispered huskily in my ear. I could do nothing but nod, and looked around to look for the others. Emmett and Rose were dancing sensually, almost but not quite kissing, while Alice and Jasper were slow dancing, embracing each other with fervor. When Edward and I left the dance floor, I could feel his fingers brush against the back of my hand and the air sparked with electricity.

There was a huge fountain just outside the club, so we sat down on the edge of it. His hand had sneaked into mine and I was experiencing something close to ecstasy just from being in such close proximity to him. We turned to look at each other, and my heart almost stopped. His eyes were so dark and intense and they bore into mine. He put a hesitant hand on my neck, rubbing it very softly. I closed my eyes and sighed lightly when I saw him leaning forward. But there was something I had to ask, I reminded myself. I couldn't do this without knowing.

"Why didn't you call me?" I said in a ridiculously weak voice, struggling to open my eyes. When I did, he had pulled back. I cursed myself for being so stupid. Why ask questions? You could be kissing this gorgeous man, for God's sake!

"I'm really sorry," he said, sounding a little nervous. "I had an unbelievably busy week with school and everything. And to top that, Emmett was being a bit insane about Rosalie and how she wouldn't answer his calls. I had to babysit him constantly to keep him from going over to your place and making a fool of himself."

_Why didn't _you_ do that?_ I wanted to scream at him, but I didn't. "Okay," I just said, shrugging. If he said he had a busy week, he probably had a busy week. He wouldn't lie.

"Also," he said, brushing my cheek with the back of his hand, "I was very nervous."

I almost laughed out loud. "What would _you_ have to be nervous about?" I was incredulous.

"Well, I was afraid that maybe I had come on a little strong," he mumbled, looking down at the water of the fountain. "I did practically attack you, after all."

I was certain my insides were melting. Yes, that must be what this felt like. He was still looking away. _Kiss me_, I thought, willing him to do so. When he began rubbing his hands together, as I knew he did when he was really nervous, something in me snapped.

"Do I have to attack _you_ to get you to kiss me?" I growled before putting a hand on the back of his neck and pushing his head to me. I only had time to catch a glimpse of his look of shock and excitement before our lips finally crashed together.

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**Author's note: KISSING! KISSING! OMG YES!**

**Sorry about that. Review and tell me how awesome/bad/weird/insane/pathetic I am!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's note: THANKS for the great reviews for the latest chapter. Warning! This chapter is a bit steamy at times. Here we go.**

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**BPOV**

The next day we were all a beautiful mess. Rose was in a constantly happy mood, which was very disconcerting as she usually was the epitome of cool, and Alice was even giddier than usual and spent more time with her phone at her ear than without it. I shouldn't talk though, I was just as bad as them, if not worse. Edward had done a number on me with that kiss and I wasn't completely sure I would be able to kiss another man ever again. Not that I'd ever want to now that I knew what Edward's kisses felt like. I would be ever grateful to Alice for ratting us out to Jasper; the instant we had agreed to go out, she had called him and told him where we would be and to meet us there. The little weasel had gotten away easily since I was far too happy to give her a hard time.

We had decided on a group movie night the Sunday after our first kiss – and our second and third as well – and that the guys would pick one movie and the girls would pick one. Us girls had gone with the evil move and decided on The Notebook, a movie the boys would surely suffer through. We went through all the motions; popping popcorn, fluffing pillows, dimming the lights. When it was about ten minutes to go before they were supposed to come over, we were all done and had nothing better to do than just sit and be nervous together.

I was kind of dreading seeing Edward again, really bad self-confidence combined with a broken heart in the past had that effect. But when I thought back on how he held my hand in the cab home the night before, and how he followed me to the door to softly kiss me good night, and how he, along with Emmett and Jasper, stood and waited until they saw that we were safely inside our apartment before heading home themselves. My insides seemed to be as light as air at the memories, and a newfound need to be near him right away soared through me. I could see that Alice and even Rose were thinking along the same line as I was; they looked very impatient and excited. When the doorbell finally rang, we all jumped up stiffly and stared at each other. Then we broke into laughter at how weirdly we were behaving. Rose and I followed Alice into the hallway and looked on as she opened the front door.

There he stood, the man who had turned me into a complete wreck. He was looking like a Greek god, leaning against the stair rail outside the apartment with his arms folded across his broad chest. I almost winced when he looked up and met my eyes. There was nothing else, Emmett wasn't teasing Rose, Jasper wasn't caressing Alice's cheek. In my mind, they weren't even there. Edward was consuming me and it was almost scary how good it felt.

"Hello," he said, his face breaking into the smile of an angel. I had always thought it was weird to call a man beautiful, but here I was, eating my words. Edward was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life.

"Hi," I breathed. I crossed the distance and stood before him, blushing lightly at how obvious I was being. I wanted him to kiss me again.

He understood what I wanted, and gave me a wicked smile before leaning down and gently kissing my throat. I shivered and put my hands on the back of his neck, twirling his glorious hair between my fingers. When I tugged at it a little, he moved his lips up my throat, across my jaw line and then they found my mouth. We both made a small sound at the same time, and laughed silently into each other's mouths. When his tongue asked for it, I granted it access to the whole of my mouth. He took full advantage of it, and before I knew it I was so dizzy that I was having a hard time just standing on my own. He noticed my predicament and broke the kiss, chuckling silently.

"Having trouble, Bella?" he asked smugly, keeping me upright by pressing my body against his, supporting almost all of my weight with one arm.

"The best kind," I grinned and kissed him again. That was when Emmett appeared right next to us. I shrieked into Edward's mouth in fright, and startled him so much that he abruptly let me go, sending me to the floor.

"Ow," I whined as Edward apologized profusely and helped me up. I rubbed my sore butt gingerly and saw Edward smack Emmett in the arm.

"Stop it," he growled. Emmett looked up at the ceiling, grinning like a maniac.

"Sure thing," he said jovially, his eyes still glued to the ceiling. "I was just sent out here to let you know that we want to start watching a movie and that the neighbors are two minutes away from calling the police on you."

Edward and I glanced at each other and almost laughed out loud.

"Oh," Emmett continued. "And that if they don't, we will."

Edward chuckled now and put his arm around me. "It certainly sounds like we have no choice but to be sociable."

"Aw, crap," I said in an over exaggerated whine.

When we entered the living room, Emmett lifted Rose from the couch, sat down and then put a fuming Rose on his lap. "I am _not_ a doll, you big jerk!" she roared.

Emmett put a finger over her lips, stopping her rant. Rose almost growled at him, but didn't object when Emmett entwined his hands with hers and rested them on her lap. She sank into him and sighed contentedly. Alice and Jasper looked on from their placement on the floor. They were lying down, Jasper was spooning Alice and running his fingers up and down her arm.

I smiled at all of them and took my place next to Edward on the couch. I was suddenly feeling a bit shy, though I did my best not to show him that. He took my hand and started running his thumb over it, smiling at me. I smiled back at him, squeezed his hand and then I turned to the others. "Which movie are we going to see first?"

"Yeah, which movie did you pick, guys?" Alice asked curiously, sitting up. Jasper turned over on his back and Alice automatically lifted her legs and rested them on his stomach. He rubbed her shin without even realizing it. The ease that seemed to exist between them startled me. They looked like they'd been together for years and not mere days. I wasn't even sure that they were completely and officially together yet.

"A war movie," Emmett said eagerly.

I saw Edward and Jasper exchanging a glance and then quickly look away, both biting their lips to keep from laughing. Beginning to get suspicious, I asked, "What is the movie called?"

"Pearl Harbor," Edward said casually, keeping a straight face.

We girls were totally in on the joke now; Emmett probably didn't know that it was more of a love story than a war movie. He would be sorely disappointed to see that there only is a war going on about a third of the movie.

Rose grinned. "We picked a sappy girl movie for you guys to enjoy, so why don't we begin with yours? So you can build up you manliness some before the crying." She flipped up the DVD cover to show the guys just how much romance there would be.

"The Notebook?" Jasper asked, actually sounding excited. We all stared at him blankly. "It's a pretty good movie," he said quietly, blushing.

Edward and Emmett were shaking their heads slowly. "Dude," Emmett said reproachfully.

Jasper huffed. "Whatever, Orchid Boy."

"If you call me that one more time, Jasper, I swear to God," Emmett snapped while the rest of us laughed merrily and Jasper shrugged. Emmett seemed to give up the fight; he sank back into the couch and grabbed a tighter hold of Rosalie. "Just tell me if you need some tissues," he growled, glaring at Jasper who quickly stopped laughing.

"Are we watching the movie or not?" Rose sighed.

"Of course we are!" Alice sang and jumped up. She looked down at her feet and realized that she was standing on Jasper's stomach. He started laughing so hard that Alice jumped up and down. It was one of the funniest sights I had ever seen and I sagged against Edward's shoulder, getting his shirt all wet with my tears of laughter. He leaned his cheek on the top of my head and laughed with me, squeezing my hand.

When things had calmed down again, Alice grabbed the Pearl Harbor DVD and popped it in.

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Emmett had grudgingly forgiven us after the mind blowing confession that he had actually liked it, even though he thought Kate Beckinsale should have gotten together with Josh Hartnett right away and sent Ben Affleck packing. All of us girls heartily agreed while Jasper and Edward looked slightly scared.

"Let's just watch the next movie now," Edward sighed impatiently, apparently forgetting all about the genre it was.

It was really funny to watch Jasper as he watched The Notebook; he looked like he could feel every feeling and empathize with every single word Noah and Allie said. When they were sad, he looked like the world was ending – when they were happy, he looked like he'd won the lottery. I had never really noticed just how good-looking Jasper was, but I noticed that when he smiled he was almost as beautiful as Edward. That's a big almost, but still.

Rose was a bit more physical in her admiration. "That Ryan Gosling _needs_ to call me," she purred.

Emmett glared at her. "I could take him," he mumbled.

"So could I," Rose sighed lovingly at the screen.

While all this was going on, Edward was slowly making me insane. We were covered by a big blanket Alice used sometime to cover the floor when she danced, and off to the end of the couch. One of his arms was wrapped around my shoulders, and his fingertips were playing across my shoulder. The other arm was on one of my thighs, slowly stroking small circles on my skin. As if that wasn't enough, his face was so close to mine that he sometimes took the opportunity to blow some warm air into my ear and making me shiver.

If he didn't stop it, I was going to take him right there on the couch in front of everyone. Instead of this ludicrous plan, I started to form a different one. The fact was that I was going to get him in my room. What happened there, I had no idea, but I knew that I wanted to get him in there alone with me. When I felt his teeth grazing my earlobe, something in me snapped.

"I'm going to go look for something," I said in a low voice. "Why don't you take a trip to the bathroom?"

He looked at me in utter bewilderment for a second and then his face just looked completely shocked. "Okay," he said in a very weak voice. I nodded, patted his knee and stood up.

No one but Alice acknowledged my movement. She looked at me in confusion, but when I gave a slight nod in Edward's direction, she grinned and gave me a small thumbs up. I glanced at Edward as I left the room and saw that his gaze was following me. My heart was thundering in my chest when I walked through the hallway and into my room. I leant against the closed door for a moment, trying to calm myself down, and then I saw how messy my room was. I quickly started to gather some dirty clothes and old magazines that were strewn across the open space, and threw them into my small bathroom. The room had just begun to look respectable when I heard a tiny knock on the door. I almost chuckled; it was so Edward to knock when I had practically tried to seduce him to come to my room. When I opened the door, he was looking at the floor. His gaze went up to meet mine, and the sight of him there made me completely numb. He was leaning against the doorframe, his hands in the pockets of his jeans, and he was looking at me from under those long eyelashes.

"Can I come in?" he asked quietly. The question startled me. I just nodded and moved so he could get past me. When he did, he let his fingers drag lightly across my stomach, and I could feel my stomach muscles tense.

He walked further into the room and looked at the different movie posters I had framed across my walls. He stopped at one in particular and chuckled. "The Little Mermaid?" he asked incredulously.

"And what is so wrong with that movie?" I teased him. "It's one of the greatest love stories of our time."

"Yes, you're right," he said as he turned around to look at me with humor in his eyes. "It almost rivals Romeo and Juliet."

"It blows Romeo and Juliet out of the water," I giggled. "Too depressing."

He laughed and put a soft hand against my cheek. "You're absurd, Bella."

"Thanks," I beamed at him.

The air seemed to change between us as his face turned serious. He lightly dragged his thumb over my lip and I kissed it reflexively. I saw his eyes widen a bit at my gesture. Not wanting to wait anymore, I put my hand on the back of his neck and pushed him to me. His lips met mine in a very fiery way and I almost immediately opened my mouth to let his tongue in. Nothing had ever felt better or more right than this did. It was like we were meant to stand there in my quite shabby room, just kissing and touching and feeling each other. His hands moved up and down my arms, but I grabbed his wrists and placed his hands on my hips. He let them rest there and kissed me even harder. I started to move, making him walk backwards, and just as I had predicted; the back of his knees hit the edge of my bed and we fell.

I landed on top of him, and we managed to not even break the kiss. Things were starting to get a little crazy, he felt so good beneath me and I wanted nothing more than to touch him. I broke away from him slightly.

"Sit," I said in a rough voice, and he did as I said. I sat with him, my legs on either side of his lap. I grabbed the edge of his shirt and pulled it off him, revealing the most perfect male chest I'd ever seen. My first instinct was to bend forward and kiss him just beneath his throat. He let his head hang back limply as I kissed my way across his chest. After a minute, he stopped me by pulling my chin up to kiss me.

"My turn," he said in a very raspy voice that made me almost shiver.

I complied, quickly pulling off my tank top. I was wearing a simple black bra, but he seemed totally mesmerized by it. His fingers touched my throat and moved lower and lower, almost grazing the tip of the bra.

I couldn't take anymore, so I kissed him roughly, pushing his back onto the bed again. Our tongues continued their battle for dominance as I realized that I was making the most embarrassing noises. Edward seemed to like them though, he kissed me harder for every sound I made.

"Wait," he suddenly said into my mouth.

I made a negative sound. Nothing was going to keep me from kissing this beautiful man.

"Bella, wait," he said in an almost breathless voice, pushing me away gently. He suddenly stood up and kept me on my feet with his hands on my upper arms.

"What?" I asked in confusion. My lips were very swollen and I knew I was blushing.

"It's too much too soon," he said, but his eyes were heavy with lust. I realized that he was being responsible. He wanted us to know each other better before taking such a huge step.

"Okay," I said fairly. "I get it." I decided to tease him a little, though. "You're just trying to protect your virtue, I get it."

He snorted with laughter and ruffled my hair a little. "Completely absurd," he murmured. "Now put your shirt on or I'll not be virtuous much longer."

The looks we got when we got back to the living room were priceless. The only one who didn't understand what we'd been doing was apparently Jasper.

"Guys," he said in a broken voice, and I could swear I saw a tear on his cheek. "You just missed the scene where Allie gets back with Noah. I'll replay it for you, you can't miss it."

Alice sighed and took the remote from him. "We've seen the entire movie twice, Jasper. We know how it goes."

Edward and I laughed and sat back down on the couch. We had just relaxed into our previous positions when Emmett leant towards us.

"Dude," he stage-whispered to Edward. "You've got lipgloss all over your neck."

Edward's eyes widened and he rubbed a hand across his throat frantically.

"You actually don't," Emmett continued gleefully, "but now I know you could have."

Edward threw a pillow at him.

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**Author's note: OMG steamy! **

**These two are killing me. Like literally. They are too hot for me. This is the last you'll hear from me because Edward and Bella have killed me with their smooches.**

**No, I'm just playing. I'll update soon. REVIEW, my lambs.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's note: Hey guys! I'm SO sorry for the time it's taken for me to update! School is so insane. Anyway, it's Twilight Tuesday and here's an update! THANK YOU for the AMAZING reviews on the last chapter! I'm falling in love with every single one of you guys. Enjoy this chapter now, and drop me a word afterwards and I'll try to answer.**

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**BPOV**

I was in a glorious daze the next couple of weeks. Edward and I were seeing each other practically every day, and the days we couldn't (when one of us had far too much schoolwork piling up to ignore) our cell phones were practically glowing with text messages. It would have been ridiculous if it didn't feel so perfectly natural.

I was kind of surprised by my willingness to trust Edward. Trusting guys hadn't really been good for me in the past, and I didn't understand why I wasn't scared that Edward would hurt me or leave me. I was getting to know him more and more and I knew that he wouldn't do anything like that to me. For some unknowable reason, this heavenly creature seemed to have genuine feelings for _me_. How the hell could something amazing as that just happen?

The Literati was pretty empty today, so I took the opportunity to study while I towel dried some coffee cups behind the counter. We were currently assigned to read _The Old Man and the Sea_ by Ernest Hemingway. It wasn't easy, I was more into 18th century romance novels, but Hemingway's writing was interesting where the plot sometimes wasn't. I was just starting to actually get into it when I heard a low cough. Blushing at being caught reading when I should be working, I looked up.

"Edward," I grinned in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

He snorted playfully. "Forgive me for wanting to visit my beautiful girlfriend."

My blush deepened. I was in no way beautiful; especially not next to him.

"I'm a girlfriend, huh?" I teased, though my heart soared at the word. We hadn't exactly declared ourselves yet.

"If you want to be," he said, sounding a little nervous for some reason.

"Silly Edward," I said, shaking my head and leaning into him.

We had kissed a lot these two weeks, but I still felt like mush every time he kissed me. I never knew what it would feel like; every kiss was different with separate layers of emotions. My hand wound in the hair at the nape of his neck as our current kiss deepened slightly. I sighed happily when our tongues met and I could feel him smile against my mouth.

A small voice let out a "hrrm" behind me. I reluctantly broke our kiss and saw him smiling wickedly at my frown.

"I'm sorry, Bella," said Angela behind me. I turned to face her dazedly. Damn Edward's lips. "There's sort of a line forming."

I turned around again and almost gasped in embarrassment. Five people were standing behind Edward, glaring at me and sighing impatiently. Edward was having a hard time trying not to laugh at my predicament.

"You knew?" I hissed at him when he had stepped aside to allow Angela to serve the poor patrons.

He just chuckled slightly and shrugged.

"You are so dead," I warned him seriously. He laughed and kissed me quickly but almost unbearably sweetly on the lips.

"Come over when your shift is done," he said and waved. When he was out the door, I leant against the counter and sighed airily. Edward was really doing a number on me.

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Edward's apartment was just like Edward himself in some ways; it was very elegant and classy. There were no random objects cluttering the open spaces. It always made me slightly uncomfortable to see when I remembered how much stuff I had thrown all over my room. I knocked on the front door, feeling excited when I thought about seeing Edward.

When the door opened, I gasped. Edward was in nothing but sweatpants and he was rubbing a towel against his damp but glorious hair. My shocked gaze followed the contours of his sculpted chest and I could almost feel my mouth salivate. Small glittering droplets of water were running from his neck and down to the hem of his pants. I caught one of them with my finger just as it passed his navel.

When my eyes met his, I could see that his were almost black. Feeling very weird, I brought my finger to my mouth and licked of the drop of water I had caught on him.

"I…" he said, but trailed off. I could see that he was staring at my mouth. "Er, come in."

I nodded and felt very pleased with myself, even though I was blushing a little at my boldness. Following him into the apartment, I smiled at the sight of the huge piano that took up almost half of the living room. He had yet to play me anything, but I knew he would someday and that he would be amazing at it. It just had to be on his terms, since he was so very serious about his music.

"I'll just go and put on a shirt," he mumbled when we reached the kitchen. I chuckled at his weird behavior. "Feel free to help yourself to anything in the refrigerator," he said before leaving me.

I stood there in the middle of the small kitchen, not really knowing what to do with myself, when I suddenly had a great idea. I quickly started to make some hot chocolate, and when Edward re-entered the kitchen, he sniffed the air appreciatively.

"Wow," he said in a surprised voice. "I don't think I've had hot chocolate in years."

"It's October, Edward," I winked at him while stirring the chocolate on the stove. "You have an open fire. Drinking hot chocolate in front of it is sort of required."

He chuckled and shook his head unbelievingly. "I guess I'll get a fire started then."

I almost giggled at the double meaning. _You already have_, I thought wickedly.

When the chocolate was done, I poured it into two mugs and went to join Edward in the living room. I was so concentrated on not tripping and pouring the hot beverages all over myself that I didn't see him at first. When I finally looked up, I stopped short and gaped in awe.

Edward had laid out several blankets on top of each other in the middle of the floor, the fire was roaring and crackling and he had lit small candles on the floor around the blankets. He was sitting on top of the blanket, legs crossed and leaning on his hands behind his back, the top three buttons on his shirt undone. It was the most breathtaking sight I'd ever seen.

"Well," he said, grinning mischievously. "Let's have us some hot chocolate then."

"Wow, Edward," I said, having a strangely strong reaction to his preparations. "I… I can't find words."

His grin paled and he looked at me with very intense eyes as I sat down in front of him, handing him his mug. "You don't need any," he said.

But after a while, we got to talking and laughing together as we always did. He had the weirdest and greatest humor I'd ever encountered and could send me into fits of laughter with just a sarcastic comment. We faced the fire, me leaning against his chest with his arms around me, and I truly felt like the luckiest girl in the world.

Now, if he'd only have sex with me, everything would be just perfect.

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My truck groaned under the pressure I put on the gas pedal.

"Come on, baby," I pleaded with it. "I'm so late."

Fifteen minutes (which would have been ten if I'd had a normal car like other girls my age) later, I parked outside Chill, the restaurant I was meeting the girls at.

"Twenty-five minutes," Alice stated happily as I practically fell through the door. "That's a new personal record, Bella!"

"Yay," Rose said without any spirit, rolling her eyes.

Angela giggled and stood up to take my book bag from me. I found that not having fifteen pounds hanging on one of my shoulders helped my balance immensely, and Angela knew that too. I smiled gratefully at her and sat down next to Rose, waving quickly to the waiter who immediately made his way to our table.

"Hey Bella," he said enthusiastically.

I rolled my eyes. "Hi Mike."

We had been coming to this restaurant since the beginning of college, and this damn Mike waiter guy seemed to have some weird obsession with me. I wanted to switch restaurants but Rose found my admirer far too comical to do anything of the sort.

"You look great," he said, keeping his eyes on me for far too long. He suddenly shook himself out of his reverie. "The usual?"

"Er, no, I'm not in the mood for the pasta alfredo today… How about the mushroom ravioli?"

Mike nodded, bobbing his head frantically. When he'd written down my order, he disappeared into the kitchen, but not before throwing me a longing glance of course. The table immediately fell into raucous laughter.

"I _love_ that guy!" Rose chuckled. "He always gives me something to laugh about."

"I feel kind of sorry for him," Angela said quietly, but I could see that she was trying to push her laughter down like the rest of us.

"Don't," I said. "I've told him time and time again that I'm not interested, but it just doesn't seem to register."

Five minutes later, Mike returned with my ravioli and a tall glass of iced water. I thanked him neutrally and tried to ignore his staring as he walked over to his next table.

"So," I said, trying to deflect the teasing I was sure was coming. "How are things between you and Ben, Angela?"

Ben and Angela were high school sweethearts and the epitome of a healthy and happy relationships. I had found myself jealous of their love on countless occacions.

"Actually," Angela began, blushing slightly and looking down at the white tablecloth. "He has asked me to marry him."

Alice jumped to her feet and Rose even started a little. I laughed and threw my arms around Angela over the table, almost sending my plate to the floor.

"Congratulations!" I shrieked.

"Angela!" Alice squeaked, clapping her hands and jumping up and down so quickly it was almost impossible to see. "You _have_ to let me plan it!"

"Okay," Angela said uncertainly.

Rose shook her head. "Bad idea."

Angela looked suddenly scared. I chuckled. "Come on, tell us how he did it!"

"Oh, it was nothing special. He just asked me over dinner last night."

Alice looked crestfallen. "Of course it was special! What exactly did he say?"

"Well, he said that he loved me and that he wanted to be with me forever… and that he wanted to show the world exactly how much we are to each other."

We all aww-ed in unison. "Told you it was special," Alice said wistfully.

Angela giggled and nodded. Then she seemed to realize something. "But Alice, if you're the wedding planner, will you be able to be a bridesmaid?"

Alice screamed and clapped her hands against her cheeks. "YES! I'm a bridesmaid!"

"This is like Christmas for her," Rose said tiredly to Angela.

"Well, I want all of you to be my bridesmaids," Angela continued, looking bewildered by Alice's strange jumping that even other guests were beginning to notice now. "I want you to be my maid of honor, Bella."

"Of course," I said, almost teary-eyed.

"Settle down, ladies!" Alice suddenly shrieked. I realized that she had perched on her seat again after her weird happy attack. "We have details to go through here."

Rose sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. "If I'm wearing anything fluffy and pink, I'm so out of here."

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**Author's note: Sorry that it's kind of short and all, I didn't have time to write anymore, and if I didn't post tonight you wouldn't get another chapter until Thursday or Friday. Hope you liked it anyway! Oh, and the girl lunch will continue in the next chapter. Until then, please review! I can't tell you guys how much I appreciate and LOVE your words!**

**PS: Isn't Edward Cullen the perfect man? Marry me!**


	14. Chapter 14

**BPOV**

I was going to have to kill Angela. It was either that or suffer a massive aneurysm. Alice was, as Rose predicted, driving everybody insane with her plans for Angela and Ben's wedding. Rose had practically moved into Emmett's apartment, and I was trying to sweet-talk Edward into letting me bring over some stuff to his place, to no avail.

"I'm sorry, Bella," he'd said one night while I was perched on his lap, begging him to let me sleep over so I wouldn't have to suffer the torture that was Alice's bossiness. "I can't let you do that."

I huffed and stood up, resting my hands on my hips. "And why not?"

"I've already told you a thousand times, love," he said confusedly. Then he sighed and took my hands. "I could never behave myself with you here, even if I was on the couch and you in the bed." He stood up and pulled me against him, breathing into my hair and causing my heart to flutter. "You just don't realize how much you affect me."

I snorted; I was the one who had trouble breathing when we kissed, and not him. "Sure I do."

He chuckled. "You really do," he said in a quiet voice, dragging his fingers lightly up my arms and sending shivers of pleasure through my entire body. "You don't know how much I would love to just… let go." His fingers stopped their movement and I looked up at him in awed confusion.

"I think you should," I said breathlessly.

"I know you do," he chuckled. "But I want it to be just right. For you, Bella, not for me."

The rest of the night consisted of me grumbling and him just smirking at me. Damn that gorgeous man for doing this to me. I mean, I'm sort of alright with waiting a little while with having sex, but to subject me to Alice's insanity just because he _apparently_ can't keep his hands off me… It's pure evil.

So I suffered through each day with Alice chattering on about different flowers and color schemes and cakes and drapes (come on, drapes?! Who the hell cares about drapes anyway?) and which minister would be least likely to mess up her very well-planned ceremonial speech. I couldn't remember the last time I'd seen Rose, and even Angela was starting to make excuses not to come over on some "emergency meeting", which usually meant that Alice wanted to know whether Angela preferred 'baby blue' or 'light blue'.

I closed the door behind me and leaned against it with a sigh. Our apartment was eerily quiet and I frowned. Where was Alice? Just as I was about to get away from the door and call out for her, the door disappeared from my back. I fell backwards onto a tiny person holding about a million bags.

"Alice," I gasped, disentangling myself from the multiple designer bags that suddenly surrounded me. "Where have you been?"

She arched an eyebrow. "Where does it look like I've been?"

"I mean, why?" I felt really stupid. Of course she'd been shopping, it was a weekday.

"Because I had to find the ultimate outfits for us, silly!" she giggled and pushed through the doorway with remarkable force. I stumbled into the kitchen to see if we would get any dinner tonight, and she followed after gracefully leaping over several bags full of clothing and accessories.

"Why?" I asked, opening the refrigerator and sniffing the only milk we had. Ugh. Why couldn't Alice be into grocery shopping instead of ridiculously over-priced designer shopping?

"For the gala, of course!"

"Of course," I said automatically, as I had just found some Chinese leftovers from the night before. I felt so jubilant that her words hadn't even registered. "What?"

She stared at me. "You know. The gala that's being held this Saturday." I just looked at her blankly. "Edward didn't tell you?"

My stomach fluttered even though my heart twisted a little. "Edward didn't tell me what?"

Alice looked suddenly uncertain. "Our school is having its annual autumn gala. Some select students get to perform a piece each in front of the family and friends of the rest of the school. I got selected and Edward did too, he told me last week." She paused. "And we're allowed to bring guests."

"It's Thursday," I said after a moment's silence.

"He hasn't asked you?" Alice asked, looking like she had already understood what I would answer.

"No," I answered her shortly, staring pointedly at the spinning plate in the microwave.

"Oh."

There was a tense silence as I tried to melt what Alice had revealed to me. When the awkwardness had gone on for about five minutes, we could both hear the door open and Rose's voice sounding through the apartment.

"I come in peace! I swear to God, Alice, if you come at me with another garment sample I'm going to take it, crumple it up and stuff it –"

"Hey Rose!" Alice shrieked, relieved.

I barely heard them, thinking of Edward and why he wouldn't ask me to go with him to this gala thing.

--

I didn't have class the next day, so I grabbed a last minute shift at the Literati. Earning my own money never got old. Emmett called sometime in the morning, asking if he could stop by and have lunch with me. I eagerly accepted, knowing that lunch with Emmett was bound to be a hoot and maybe I could ask him some subtle questions about Edward's ignorance concerning the gala.

At 12 p.m., I heard the door to the coffee shop bang open and a booming laugh as some customers gasped in fright. I rolled my eyes. That entrance could belong to none other than Emmett.

"Angela!" I called into the back room. "I'm going to lunch, okay?"

"Sure, go ahead," Angela answered after a second, and came out to stand behind the counter in my wake.

I grabbed my bag and the book I was currently reading, when suddenly a hand took it from me.

"Pride and Prejudice?" Emmett said incredulously, tenderly gripping the worn book as though it could explode at any moment. "Bella, are you insane?"

I almost laughed at his serious expression. "And why would I be insane?"

"Well," he said, very slowly putting the book on the counter and glaring at it. "I don't know any sane person who takes a book with her to dinner when she knows she's going to have company there. A good men's magazine, sure, but a 17h century novel?"

I put a hand against my mouth to keep from exploding. "18th century, actually."

He glared at me instead of the book. "So not the point, Bella."

I took his arm and squeezed it with both my hands. He didn't flinch for a second. "Let's go," I said, still grinning.

"We're here!" Emmett said triumphantly after a brisk five-minute walk.

"No," I moaned. "Not Chill, Emmett."

"Now, now," he said, patting my head and almost breaking my neck. "None of that. After you, milady."

He held open the door from me and I sighed and walked past him. He would find out soon enough why this restaurant was a bad idea. When we had gotten inside and found a table, a sudden bang could be heard, and someone started scrambling towards us table, pushing away the waitress that had just been about to introduce herself to us.

"I'll take this one!" Mike shrieked. The waitress looked at me and seemed to understand Mike's ridiculous intentions. She rolled her eyes and walked over to the next table instead. I looked after her in panic, my last hope for safety gone.

"What can I do for you?" he continued eagerly, flinging up a small notebook and almost hitting himself in the face with it.

Emmett was gaping at the guy, looking like he didn't know whether to laugh or not. I caught his eye and shrugged.

When we'd finally gotten our orders straight and I'd deflected two propositions from our lovely waiter, we finally began to relax and talk.

"Oh man," Emmett said, flinching suddenly. "I think Rose broke my back last night."

I gaped at him. "Emmett!" What the hell? I didn't want to hear this.

"No, no," he said, laughing his wonderful laugh. "She insisted on giving me this weird massage, and now I can barely stand up straight."

I laughed loudly. "I've been subjected to that torture myself, actually."

He chuckled, and then I could see his eyes sort of glaze over.

"You're picturing it, aren't you?"

"Please tell me you two were in nothing but your underwear," he answered me dreamily.

"No," I smirked. "We weren't _in_ our underwear."

He looked bummed at first, but then he seemed to realize the double-meaning in my words. He peered at me suspiciously.

I tried to look serious. "So what is Edward doing today?"

"Practicing," Emmett answered, apparently dropping the other thoughts and munching on a breadstick.

That caught my attention. "Practicing piano?" Emmett nodded. "For what?"

"I don't know, his school is having this high-class thing tomorrow night, where you have to wear a suit and everything. Sounds like a bore, but Edward asked me to go, so…"

"You're going?" I gasped, feeling hurt.

Emmett started and looked up at me. "Yeah, so?"

"Edward invited you?" I asked, frowning.

"Yeah, I'm taking Rose."

"Oh." I frowned even deeper and sat back, folding my arms over my stomach. A waitress came, left our food and left us to eat. Emmett grinned and dug into his food with fervor.

"What's wrong?" Emmett said after a silence stretched out between us.

"Nothing," I sighed.

"Okay," Emmett replied, happily munching on his food.

"I just don't get it!" I suddenly burst out.

Emmett looked at me, then at his fork. Then he sighed and dropped his fork onto the table. "What exactly is it that you don't understand, Bella dearest?"

I stared at the ceiling in frustration. "He's playing a personal piece on his piano in front of hundreds of people, none of them me. Why is that?"

Emmett shrugged, not looking at me. I stared at him. He glanced up at me, saw me staring and sighed deeply. "I'm not allowed to tell, Bella, so don't pressure me into anything."

I put on my best show, puppydog eyes and all. Finally, he caved. "Fine, but when he tries to find a scapegoat, I'll point him straight in your direction."

I nodded eagerly, leaning forward to hear why my boyfriend didn't want me to support him on a very important day of his life.

"He's nervous," Emmett said simply.

"What do you mean? Why is he nervous?" I frowned. "Oh, is it because he's playing in front of so many people?"

"Nope," Emmett said, smiling. "He's nervous because_ you've_ never heard him play before."

My heart jumped and fluttered and sang. "How do you know that?"

"Because," he sighed, "he's been trying to ask you to go with him the whole week now, and apparently he hasn't been successful yet."

Edward. Wonderful, amazing, beautiful Edward. The sheer ridiculousness of his nervousness was staggering and so endearing that my chest ached with some acute feeling for him that I couldn't identify. When I came back to earth, Emmett was smiling at me mischievously.

"Why were you just off to La-la Land?" he teased.

"Because my boyfriend is far too good for me," I sighed happily and laughed when Emmett made a face.

When I had said goodbye to Emmett half an hour later, I walked back to the Literati. When I got there, Angela was standing by the door, holding a single red rose. She was looking very excited.

"Hey Ang," I said confusedly. "What's up?"

"Someone came by to see you," she sang.

My heart jumped. "Edward."

Angela nodded and handed me the rose. I took it disbelievingly. "He said that he couldn't stay, but he just wanted to give you this."

I grinned and sighed dreamily. When I got to the backroom and put my bag away, I noticed a small card hanging from the beautiful rose. I curiously unfolded it.

_Bella,_

_I think I sort of maybe could possibly begin to like you._

_Edward_

I laughed for a full minute. It was so cute, so funny, so impossibly Edward. And I suddenly knew what I could do to make him forget his insecurities.

--

**Author's note: WOW. It's been a while, guys. I'm so incredibly sorry, school has been insane these past few weeks. But whatever, the grades are final this Thursday, and after that I'm a free woman! Whoo!**

**Thank you all SO much for the reviews on the last chapter. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, I know it's sort of a filler. But I figured that since it has Emmett in it that should be forgivable. Haha, review and make me happy happy happy!**


	15. Chapter 15

I went home directly after my shift and started to rummage through the disaster area that was my room. No one bothered me, though I noticed Rosalie passing my door once to stop and look at me quizzically. I ignored her and continued my digging. There it was; the thick black folder I had never shown anyone in my life. I hugged it to my chest and could feel my stomach flutter nervously. I was really doing this.

A half hour later, I was knocking on Edward's door. He opened it with a gorgeous smile and I couldn't help but smile right back. Moving to the side so I could get inside, he pecked me quickly on the lips.

"Hi, beautiful." Another kiss and I blushed.

"Hey there." I let my hands rest on his hips and kissed him a bit harder, while he closed the door and leant against the back of it.

When we finally had to come up for air, I shrugged out of his arms and tried to clear my head. He chuckled at my confused expression. "How was your day?" he asked and gestured for me to follow him into the kitchen.

"Strange," I pretended to be weirded out by something. "Angela told me some creepy guy left me a rose at the Literati."

He laughed. "Oh, really? That's so scary."

"I know," I shrugged, frowning. " You probably need to stay with me when I work from now on. You know, to keep me safe."

"Probably," he nodded and encircled my waist with his muscular arms.

We stood there for a minute, just looking at each other and smiling. I caught sight of his piano in the corner of my eye, and suddenly remembered my mission. "There's something I wanted to show you."

"Oh?" he said curiously, walking over to the stove where a tomato sauce was simmering next to a pot of boiling spaghetti.

I placed my book bag on the kitchen table and took a deep breath before pulling out the black folder. Letting my fingers drag over the cover slowly, I turned around to face Edward.

"I'm really nervous," I admitted. "No one has ever seen this before."

Edward put down the spoon he'd been using for stirring the sauce, but didn't say anything. He just kept his eyes on mine. I walked up to him and placed the folder in his hands.

"What is it?" he asked in a low voice.

"It's…" I began in a shaky voice, but couldn't continue. I took a deep breath. "It's my book."

His eyes widened and his gaze fell onto the folder in his hands. "Your book?"

"Yes," I sighed. "I've written a book. But it's really bad and it isn't even edited. So if you want to read it, you're not allowed to laugh. Well, except at the parts where you're supposed you laugh; you have to laugh there."

He smiled affectionately at me and slowly opened the cover of the folder to reveal the title.

"_No Vacancy_," he whispered. "That's a really good title."

I was feeling very uncomfortable, shifting my weight from one foot to another. Edward was flipping through the pages, looking very serious. I flinched when he shut the folder and looked at me.

"Thank you," he said seriously, and hugged me to him so tightly I didn't know where I stopped and he began. My hands travelled across his broad back and clutched his shirt. I felt so ridiculous; I was almost crying just because I'd shown someone what I really wanted to do with my life. And he hadn't laughed in my face.

I pulled away from him and tried to wipe my eyes discreetly, but he grabbed my wrists gently and forced me to look at him. "Bella, I want to ask you something."

My heart skipped a beat. "Sure."

Edward took a deep breath. "I know you're wondering why I haven't asked you to come to the gala my school is organizing. The truth is that I'm so nervous that you're going to hear me play my music. I really want it to be perfect when you hear it, because you're the only one whose opinion I truly care about."

Tears were travelling down my cheeks again. Stupid, overly emotional girl.

"But I'm asking you now," he continued firmly. "And I'm truly sorry that I did it this late, but I hope you will come with me in spite of my tardiness."

"Of course," I whispered and smiled at him wetly. "Did you really expect me not to?"

He grinned and kissed my forehead gently.

"Well," I said, pulling away and straightening my shirt. "I believe that's enough drama for one day."

He chuckled and ruffled my hair playfully. "What did I do to get such a drama queen for a girlfriend?"

"I don't know, but you really must have pleased the lord," I joked.

"I sure must have," he mumbled, and my stomach fluttered.

--

"Are you insane? Seriously, are you insane?"

Alice looked at me with a deceptively innocent expression. "Why, I have no idea what you're talking about, Bella."

"Oh, I think you do," I snapped and turned away from the mirror to glare at her. "This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever worn, and I have half a mind to move out and never talk to you again."

"Now, now," Alice tutted, "let's not say anything we'll regret when our boyfriend throws themselves at us."

I gritted my teeth. "There's. No. Way. In. Hell."

"Aw, come on!" Alice stomped her tiny foot and whined at me. "I spent so much time looking for the perfect dress for you and now that I finally found it you won't even wear it!"

"That is correct," I huffed and turned back to the mirror.

The dress was pitch black with just the tiniest trace of glitter smattered across it. It reached the floor and flowed gracefully around my thighs, with a small silver seam tracing in curves up to my waist, where the ridiculously dipping neckline began. Honestly, I was almost showing my bellybutton in this nightmare of a dress. I shook my head at Alice in the mirror. No way. She just shrugged, smiled at me and danced out of the room to put her own dress on.

The front door opened, but I paid no attention to it while I tried to reach the damn zipper on my back to get this awful garment off of my body. After a minute, Rose popped her head in the door and gasped.

"Wow, Bella! You look like you're going to the Oscars."

"Shut up," I muttered, arching my back like a madwoman to reach the zipper. "I look like I'm off to stand at a street corner."

Rosalie snorted with laughter – but didn't look as unfeminine as us mere mortals while doing it – and came over to grab my shoulders and steer me to the mirror.

"You're beautiful, Bella. Edward will cry at the sight of you."

I laughed in spite of myself. "I'm just afraid that my… girls will pop out at the worst time possible."

"There's a _good _time for girls popping out?" Rose chuckled and then she snapped her fingers. "Oh wait, there is."

I ignored her. "His parents are coming, for God's sake. I don't want to look like a prostitute the first time I'm introduced to them."

"Ooh," Rose purred. "Be sure to tell me when you see them. That Mr. Cullen is bound to be a major hottie with a son that looks like that."

I laughed and punched her shoulder. "You will _not_ flirt with Edward's father! Emmett would have a heart attack. And stop talking about Edward like that!"

"Oh, please." She rolled her eyes. "Don't be a prude. The dress is amazing, your hair is great, your man is gorgeous and your best friends are magnificent. It will all work out, sweetie."

"Why am I not convinced?" I sighed.

The phone rang and we both heard Alice's graceful dance to it. Then she came flying into my room.

"Grab your purses, ladies, because we are off!"

I took a deep breath, glanced quickly in the mirror one last time, groaned at the sight and followed the girls out of the door. This was going to be horrible.

When we got out of the limo the boys had rented for us, they were waiting outside the premises that would hold the gala shortly. They looked stunning in their fancy suits and I noticed that all of us girls let out a collective sigh at the sight of them. Jasper turned around and noticed us approaching with a great smile on his face.

"Alice," he breathed and came forward to sweep up her small form against his tall one. She giggled and threw her arms around his neck instantly.

"Hello, boys," Rosalie said with a hand on her hip. "So which one of you will be escorting me tonight?"

Edward and I laughed but Emmett glared at her. "Ha ha," he said and stuck out his arm for her to take. She winked at me before turning around and letting her guide him into the building.

"Hi," Edward finally said, his eyes focused on mine. "You look –"

"Like this might cost you a few bucks?" I suggested, smirking knowingly.

He laughed at my pretty tasteless joke. "I really hope not, cause I left my wallet at home."

"Darn it," I said and turned around, waving. "Taxi!"

"Very funny," he said, rolling his eyes and pulling me back to his chest.

"I thought so."

"Seriously, though," he said in a low voice and twirled one of my curls between his fingers. "You look absolutely mouthwatering."

I took a deep breath and smiled at him. "Right back at you."

He grinned and kissed me, lingering a bit longer than I expected. When we broke away, I was breathing heavily, something that my plunging neckline made rather obvious. I caught Edward's eyes wandering for just a second.

"We better get inside before I really call for a taxi," he muttered in a flustered tone.

I guffawed and took his outstretched arm. "I'm pleasantly surprised at you."

"I'm a man, aren't I?"

I squeezed his muscular arm for a second. "You most certainly are."

He looked at me with narrowed eyes for a second. "Stop tempting me. I have a performance to attend to."

"Oh, most certainly, sir," I said in a very snobbish voice and he chuckled.

We climbed the stairs into the building and I tried not to puke all over myself in horror. _That would be just great_, I thought. _Please God, let me not make a fool of myself on one of the most important days of Edward's life._

--

**Author's note: Hi everyone and thank you SO MUCH for the reviews on the last chapter. There were a bit fewer of them than usual, but I'm so grateful for the amazing ones I did receive. I hope everyone liked this chapter; it was a surprisingly hard one for me to write.**

**And I'm sorry about the bad updating I've done lately, but now that school's out I should have more time over for writing. Anyway, thank you so much for reading and I hope you'll leave me a review!**

**As some of you may have noticed, my grammar isn't 100 correct many times. This is because I'm Swedish, so English isn't my first language. I have a certificate in Advanced English from Cambridge though, but that doesn't seem to help me some of the time. Anyway, if anyone would be interested in doing some betaing and bouncing some ideas back and forth with me I would be eternally grateful. If anything, it would mean a preview of the chapters, right? Haha. Someone with MSN would be preferable.**

**Shameless plug: I just posted a one-shot of the B/E wedding called 'Falling Away'. Read and review, please, my lovelies.**

**And that concludes the longest author's note in the history of fanfiction! Thanks and goodnight!**


	16. Chapter 16

**BPOV**

I gasped as we entered the huge ballroom. Huge fake waterfalls were placed along the walls and four ice sculptures adorned the buffet table. Large white silk straps were floating from the ceiling, almost but not quite touching the heads of some of the taller people attending. Wow, this was apparently a much bigger deal than I had thought. My eyes strayed to an enormous white piano in front of all the tables and I nudged Edward, pointing at it discreetly.

He swallowed. "Please don't remind me, Bella."

"Why?" I chuckled. "You're going to do great."

"How can you be so sure of that? You've never heard me play."

My poor, insecure, wonderful boyfriend. "Please, Edward. You're good at everything, why wouldn't you be great at something you love so much?"

He didn't seem able to find an answer; he just grinned down at me and kissed me softly.

"Guys," Jasper said suddenly, shaking my shoulder slightly. "We've found our table."

We were all seated at the same table, a round one that placed ten people. It was located almost directly in front of the piano, and I wondered if Edward had anything to do with the location.

"Oh, I'm so nervous," Alice giggled as we sat down. I noticed. She could barely sit still, her knees bobbing up and down constantly. I could see Jasper getting stressed by her, trying to calm her with silent words and small touches. After a while, Alice took a deep breath and settled down.

Rosalie chuckled. "Honestly, Alice. If all the nights you've kept Bella and me up with your insane dancing didn't pay off, I will personally get up there and strangle you."

We all looked at her, not knowing whether to laugh or not. "Come on, you all know us girls need our beauty sleep."

"Some of us need it more than others," I muttered, insinuating at Rosalie's obvious perfection.

Edward leaned down and whispered in my ear. "You don't need to sleep at all, then, do you?"

I blushed but scowled at the ridiculousness of his comment. "I think you'll find that I need to sleep more than most."

"Not possible," he murmured and kissed my earlobe, making me shiver helplessly.

There was a blinding flash and then a distinctive mechanical sound. I quickly pulled away from Edward and stared around me. There Emmett sat with a silver digital camera in hand, grinning impishly.

"That was great, but Bella, could you move your face slightly to the left? There's a bad shadow."

I resisted the urge to throw my fork at him as all the occupants of our table tried to hide their laughs. Edward just chuckled and kissed my cheek quickly.

"Ladies and gentlemen," said a dignified voice, breaking off all conversation that circulated the tables. "Welcome to the annual Winter Gala held by Orson's School of the Arts." The snobbish woman waited while we all applauded politely. "Thank you. We shall begin with a few performances from our top students. These are the young men and women we regard as the future of art, and we want all of you to have a chance to discover their talent as well."

First, I would like to call up Elizabeth Naven, who will be performing an intricate ballet number. Go on."

A blonde and extremely thin girl stood up from the audience and walked up to the front, just a couple of feet away from our table. A complicated violin piece started playing from nowhere, and she was off.

I was in awe when she was done, bowing low and thanking us in the microphone. The older woman walked up to it again.

"Thank you, Elizabeth," she said. "Next we will enjoy the jazzy number of Alice Brandon."

Alice squealed and hid her face in her hands for a second. When Jasper worriedly put a hand on her back, she jumped up smiling widely and ran up to the floor before us.

She waved excitedly at the crowd and blew Jasper a kiss as the music started playing. Suddenly little Alice was off, dancing in such tune with the music that the ballet dancer before her appeared to have been badly balanced. I was gaping and laughing in shock at how talented she were; I had of course seen her dance a million times before, but never ever like this. I glanced over at Jasper and saw his perfectly mesmerized face as his eyes followed Alice's every move. It seemed suddenly clear that Jasper was the reason for her newfound brilliance.

When the song was over and Alice bowed for a moment before jumping up and down excitedly, all the people at our table stood up, whooping loudly. I could see Edward in the corner of my eye and saw that he looked extremely worried. I frowned. There was no way Edward was not great at playing the piano, there was just no way.

The show went on with a few minor mistakes only, and suddenly Edward's name was called. His hand tightened around mine and I kissed his cheek and whispered in his ear. "You're going to be amazing, I just know you are."

He looked at me with a strange fear in his eyes and kissed me quickly. I sensed a touch of desperation in his kiss and frowned against his lips. Why was he so extremely nervous? It was so unlike him. He let my hand go and slowly walked over to the grand piano, sitting down and readjusting the microphone next to him.

"Er," he said into it and his beautiful voice reverberated around the ballroom. Every pair of eyes in the room was on him now, and he seemed fully aware of that fact. But then his eyes met mine and something happened. There was suddenly no one there but us, just me and Edward, staring at each other and smiling.

"I began to write this piece a couple of weeks ago," he said in a calm and low voice. "For a girl, naturally." There was a pause as many chuckled. I smiled wider but something in his eyes suddenly caused me to stop smiling and look at him in confusion. He looked so serious.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "Bella, I love you."

If it was possible for a human being to die, visit heaven for an endless amount of time and then return to an even happier place, that was what I had just done. I gaped incredulously at him and he looked away from me, his cheeks actually coloring just a little. I had never seen nothing like it.

"_What_ did he just say?" Rosalie hissed from the chair next to mine. I suddenly felt something cutting into my arm and dazedly looked down to find Alice's well-manicured nails digging into my skin. Emmett and Jasper were looking at me worriedly. Emmett shrugged and grinned, looking as if he was trying to test the waters.

My eyes automatically turned back to Edward. He didn't look at me; he was staring down at the keys of the piano. Then he began to play. Every mumbling around us stopped in an instant as the gentle flow of his music flew across the room, encasing us all in its incredible warmth and – I recognized it instantly – love.

His face was so enflamed with passion that I wondered how the people who didn't know him even had the decency to look at him. The momentum of him playing what was in his heart was so private and precious that I almost felt like I should look away.

But then I remembered that the music was mine.

It was over hours too soon, and I couldn't move a muscle as the applauds thundered around me.

"Thank you," Edward murmured in to the microphone before standing up and walking back to our table, still not allowing his eyes to meet mine.

When he sighed deeply and sat down next to me, I finally felt the tears that were leaking from my eyes. "Edward," I whispered. The others looked away from us, talking amongst themselves. I was grateful. "Edward, look at me."

He did after a moment, his eyes so intense that I swallowed nervously. Then I gently touched my lips to his, trying in some way to convey to him the feelings that he had given me by playing his piece. He responded, letting his fingers graze my bare arm as I shivered in their wake. When we broke apart, I put my hand on his neck to keep him from pulling away completely. I rested my forehead against his and looked into his sparkling eyes.

"I love you," I whispered.

"Thank you," he murmured back to me. I chuckled wetly.

Then he gently wiped my tears away with his thumbs, his eyes never leaving mine. When all my tears were gone, he sighed contentedly and looked at the others. There were so conspicuous, I was almost expecting Emmett to begin to whistle an innocent tune.

Alice was the first to speak when she noticed that we had finished our quiet exchange. "That was… almost too amazing, Edward. I'm beginning to feel bad about my own performance."

"Not a chance," Jasper said to her. Then he added, "But Edward, that was even better than how you usually play."

"Very impressive, my man," Emmett offered and Edward allowed him a rare high five.

"Could barely have done it better myself," Rose joked. Edward smiled gratefully at her, knowing that her intent was good.

He looked down at me. I chuckled, surprised. "What do you expect _me_ to say? I will not say a word. Nothing can describe what you just managed, and I will not even try."

He seemed pleased and grabbed my hand to place a kiss in my palm.

--

We all took the limousine home, and dropped everyone off one by one. Rosalie and Alice decided to stay over with their boys, so Edward and I were alone in the limo at the end of the night.

"Where to?" the older chauffeur turned around to ask us.

Edward gave him my address and turned his attention back to me. I smiled up at him and bit my lip a little nervously. After a moment of silence, I leaned across the seat to kiss him. In the background I could hear the chauffeur elevating the small wall between the driver's seat and the back of the car, and I was sort of grateful to him when I could hear myself let out a small noise.

I could feel Edward's smile against my lips and eagerly opened them to him. He kissed me like never before, letting his tongue dance with mine and slide across my mouth until I could actually feel my limbs turning into mush in his strong arms. He broke contact suddenly and I protested with a low groan, until his mouth started to trail up my neck, leaving small kisses and licks as they did. When they reached my earlobe and he gently bit down on it at the same time as his hand came to rest on one of my breasts, my eyes bulged with surprise and I gasped. He chuckled huskily against my hair.

"Too much?" he asked in a low but very intense voice.

"Not enough," I whispered, pulling his beautiful face back to mine.

The limo suddenly came to a slow halt, and my heart just about stopped. Damn it, I thought. This was where the night would end, there was no way that Edward was staying with me tonight.

Not even acknowledging that we had reached my apartment, looked up at him in confusion. He was staring at me, his jaw working furiously. I couldn't quell my sudden need to kiss him.

"Bella," he whispered against my lips. I murmured something intelligible in response. "Would you mind… if I maybe…"

I pulled away slightly. "If you what?" My heart accelerated hopefully.

Edward continued to stare at me. "If I spent the night," he said quickly.

Grinning widely, I pulled him even closer to me if that was physically possible. "I think I could live with that, actually."

When he had paid his share of the limo fee, we made our way up the stairs to my apartment. It was a very slow trip as we couldn't help but to stop and kiss each other deeply every other step. I clung tightly to him as he almost lifted me of the steps in his fervor to kiss me even harder. We laughed every time we stumbled on a step, but then our lips met again just as quickly.

I was in absolute heaven. Edward had actually said he loved me. _He loves me_, I thought giddily as his mouth moved hungrily with mine. We were finally going to take the next step together, and I was sure that his decision to wait until we knew each other better had been absolutely brilliant. I was so convinced that loving him would be so perfect, and I could safely say that I believed that no one had ever been as happy as I was in that exact moment.

That was, of course, when everything changed – as they always do when things are just too good to be true. I could, in the corner of my eye, see a large figure standing outside the door of my apartment. Frowning slightly, I broke away from Edward.

"Wha-" he began, but I wasn't looking at him.

"Bella," said the figure in a husky voice I recognized almost as well as my own, coming into the hallway light so I could see his face more clearly.

My heart almost fell through the floor and I could feel my muscles pulling my mouth into a horrified grimace of surprise.

"Jacob," I whispered.

--

**Author's note: I AM BEGGING FOR FORGIVENESS. PLEASE DO NOT KILL ME.**

**Seriously, though, the story had to have some plot some time. Right?**

**(Thank you all for the amazing reviews on the last chapter.)**

**(And omg, I'm so sorry for the really bad description of Edward playing. How can you ever really describe something like that with words?)**


	17. Chapter 17

My stomach knotted uncomfortably as I stared at Jacob in pure horror. What the hell was he doing here? He just vanishes for almost two years, and then he suddenly reappears on my doorstep? What was he playing at?

"You know him," Edward stated, his arms still encircling my waist from our earlier embrace.

I nodded dully but didn't tear my eyes away from Jacob. The shock of seeing him was still sending sparks through my body, and I cringed against them. Edward seemed to take this wrong way and let his arms fall, stepping away from me to lean against the wall opposite us. He folded his arms over his chest and looked down at the floor.

"What are you doing here?" I asked Jacob in a very shrill voice.

Jacob tore his eyes away from Edward with seeming difficulty and looked at me. "I wanted to talk to you." He paused, his irritated gaze back on Edward, who stared back relentlessly. "In private."

I grimaced. I really didn't want to be alone with Jacob, or even talk to him at all, but I couldn't quell my sudden curiosity. What did he think he could have accomplished by seeking me out, years after he had left?

"Okay," I said, grabbing my keys and unlocking the door to the apartment. I pushed it open. "I'll meet you in there."

Jacob nodded, gave Edward one last menacing look and stepped into the apartment. I closed the door after him and turned to Edward. He was looking at the door next to my head, his jaw tightly clenched. I cautiously put my arms around his lean waist and leaned my cheek against his chest. He stood stiff like a statue for a moment, before finally relaxing and putting his arms around my shoulders and resting his chin on the top of my head. He sighed into my hair.

"Who is he?" he asked quietly. "Why am I having this reaction to him?"

I just sniffed and pressed my cheek harder into his chest. "We sort of have… a history together."

"Did you know he was going to come here?" His voice was calm but I saw through it. A slow panic was starting to spread in my body.

"No," I said forcefully. "I haven't seen him in years."

"Okay," Edward said quietly. "I guess I should give you two some privacy then." He kissed my hair. "I'll call you tomorrow."

"Okay," I sighed. "Thanks." Damn Jacob. I had been so close to getting what I had wanted from Edward for so long. We were going to take that final step and now Jacob had destroyed everything.

I watched Edward turn around and disappear down the stairs, his shoulders squared, before turning around and entering the apartment. Sighing and trying to stir up some courage, I walked into the living room, where Jacob was standing and inspecting the photos that adorned the walls. He was even taller than he used to be, the top of his head almost nudging the ceiling, and his shoulders were broader than ever. I could see the defined muscles that wound down his arms, just barely hidden by his long-sleeved T-shirt.

"I can't believe you live with Alice and Rosalie," he chuckled. "How you find the strength to deal with them on a daily basis, I'll never know."

I didn't laugh. "What do you want, Jacob?" I asked in a cold voice.

He looked down at the floor and sighed deeply. "I'm not here to hurt you. I just wanted to… explain myself."

I laughed a humorless laugh. It sounded very harsh to my own ears. "You're a couple of years too late on that one, buddy."

Jacob winced and turned around to look at me. I gestured wordlessly to the couch and he sat down. I sat down on the other end, crossing my arms and staring at the low table in front of me.

"How are you these days?" he asked quietly. I could hear the trepidation in his voice. "Are you… okay?"

"Of course I am," I snapped. "You leaving wasn't the end of the world, you know."

He winced harder this time and I decided to give him a break. Dumbass or not, he had once meant the world to me. He had been my sun, shining a light on my every day.

"I'm okay," I said quietly. "Better than okay, actually."

"I'm glad," Jacob answered just as quietly, but he didn't look glad. His jaw was clenched and his arms were folded across his impossibly broad chest. Then his eyes softened.

"Bella," he whispered intensely, leaning down to look into my eyes. "Will you please let me explain what happened?"

I took a step back from him, trying to signal that I needed some personal space. "I already know what happened, Jacob. You got tired of me and found something –"

"No!" he protested forcefully. "No, Bella, I was never tired of you. How could anyone be tired of you?"

I shrugged. It seemed pathetically easy to me.

"No, no," he repeated himself. "Not a chance. What happened was… I was so very much in love with you, Bella."

My heart stayed cold when I heard his words, though my stomach stirred nervously. Why did he have to do this to me?

"I was ridiculously in love with you, as a matter of fact. Everything was going great with us, I was happier than I'd ever been in my life, and then…"

"You met _her_," I spat in spite of myself.

Jacob closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "The first time I laid eyes on Rebecca, my whole world kind of turned on its side and I have no idea why. I had this sudden urge to see her, talk to her, touch her…"

I swallowed and looked away.

"It was never my intention to be unfaithful to you, Bella. I don't know why or how I managed to do it without throwing up or killing myself. That was how bad I felt while I did it."

Tears were slowly travelling down my cheeks now. I was so over Jacob and all the baggage that came with him, but this old pain that had almost crippled me a couple of years ago… It was still pretty potent.

"You managed it, though," I whispered ruefully. "You didn't seem all that unhappy when I caught you with her, either."

He winced at the memory and I did the same inwardly. We just stood there for a minute after that, the silence heavy in the air. My quiet sniffs were the only thing that could be heard in the apartment.

"Do you think you'll ever be able to forgive me?" Jacob asked in a small voice, but I could hear the hope in it.

"No," I said forcefully. Then I sighed. "Never completely, Jacob. Maybe I could have gotten over the crush on Rebecca, or even you sleeping with her, but I could never ever forgive you just leaving without even saying goodbye. Not a chance in hell."

To my utter surprise, his eyes were sparkling with unshed tears. I couldn't help but feel a little bit of sympathy for him. We had been best friends for a very long time before we ever became lovers, after all. He was still my friend under all of the betrayal and hurt. But that's just it; he was a friend and absolutely nothing more.

"You need to go, Jacob," I said, trying to sound friendly but suspecting that I failed.

He looked at me with such pain in his eyes that I almost wanted to embrace him in a hug, but the urge disappeared as fast as it had started. I turned away from him and walked into the hall. When I had opened the front door and followed him into the stairway, I stopped and looked at him. This would be goodbye. I would never again feel any inclination to calling him or seeing him. The thought made me strangely sad, and I suddenly realized that I would miss Jake. Not the Jacob that had made me so sad and hurt, but the Jake that used to play around with me when we were kids and our fathers were on fishing trips together. I would miss the Jake that gave me an old motorcycle when I turned sixteen (and almost achieved in giving my father a heart attack at the same time).

All the same, I would miss him.

We looked at each other, and the only explanation I have for what happened next is that he misinterpreted the nostalgia in my eyes for something much deeper, because the next thing I knew, his lips were on mine.

No, my brain screamed at me, this is wrong, this isn't Edward!

But I was too shocked to move at first. When I finally reacted, I tried to push him away. I roughly clawed at his shoulders, and after ten seconds of frantic fight, he finally let me go. I was still too shocked to say anything; I just gaped at his boldness and total inconsideration of my feelings.

Then he slipped something in my hand and bound down the stairs, disappearing from sight. Dazedly, I glanced into my palm. There was a small piece of paper with a phone number on it. I angrily crumpled it up and threw it on the floor before walking in and slamming the door to my apartment in frustration.

That night I couldn't sleep and there was a very simple explanation for that. I missed Edward, so much that I had to crumple into a foster position in order to keep myself together. Sleep finally came over me when I already could see some light through my heavy curtains.

--

When Rosalie and Alice got home the next day, I immediately told them about Edward's proposition and Jacob's visit. They were awed by Edward and angered by Jacob. After all, they had seen the mess I'd been when Jacob had betrayed me so.

"You're not interested in him, are you?" Rose hissed at me.

"Of course not!" I gasped. "I love Edward."

"Don't be stupid, Rose," Alice laughed. "Have you seen the moony eyes she gives Edward? Jacob never even got a taste those, not that he deserved them."

"You have to explain everything to Edward, though," Rose reminded me. "For all he knows, Jake is an old booty call or something."

Both Alice and I laughed. "Yeah," I grinned, "because I so am the booty call type, right? Anyway, I'll just explain it all to him later. He promised he'd call today."

The girls nodded and then we moved on to happier subjects. But the phone never rang.

I glanced at it every few minutes to make sure it hadn't run out of battery or that I'd accidentally turned off the sound, but no call came. 10 pm that night I couldn't stop myself any longer; I had to call him.

"Hello?" his beautiful voice answered after two signals.

"Hi," I breathed, so happy to hear his voice that I sank onto a – thankfully – nearby chair.

He was quiet and I frowned. "How are you?"

"Fine, thank you," he said shortly. "And you?"

"Fine," I murmured. Why was he acting so weird? "Edward, listen –"

"Yes?"

I was taken aback by the sharpness in his voice. "That thing with Jacob last night… I just wanted to tell you –"

"You don't have to tell me anything, Bella," Edward said in a very cold voice I had never heard him use before. "You don't owe me any explanations."

My mouth hung open in horrified shock. "But Edward –"

"No, Bella," he said firmly. "You don't have to say anything, I got the message. Goodbye."

And then he hung up.

--

**Author's note: OMG NOOOOO…**

**Why do I do this to myself? Someone **_**please**_** tell me?**

**And yes, Jacob being so mesmerized by that Rebecca girl is supposed to be a nod to the imprinting business the werewolves do. Still doesn't change the fact that is was a shitty thing to do.**

**Thank you so much for the awesome reviews I got for the last chapter! It was the most reviews I've ever gotten for a single chapter! Hopefully I'll get some great ones for this one as well. You guys are the best.**


	18. Chapter 18

"Bella?" his musical voice called to me through the trees. "Bella, please?"

I gasped when I heard him, swinging around and feeling my hair slapping against my face. The clouds had fallen down from the skies and onto the dark forest, smothering the thick trees.

"Bella?" The voice sounded different now; he was further away. I panicked and ran in the direction I thought the sound came from. The branches whipped across my face, but I didn't feel any pain at all.

I ran for hours, never even falling down. It felt like I was flying, because I was on my way to Edward.

"Bella?"

Huh. The voice had changed drastically. Suddenly I felt myself lifting from the wet ground, and I now began to realize what was going on.

I was dreaming, of course. Edward wasn't trying to find me; he had left me. Just like everyone else.

"Bella, please wake up." It was Alice. I opened my eyes into cautious slits. The light from my bedside lamp hurt my eyes, so I closed them again and groaned.

"Go away," I muttered into my pillow. I wasn't getting out of bed today, not a chance.

"But sweetie," Alice's soft voice begged me. "Please, won't you just have some breakfast with me and Rosie? We really miss you."

"No," I said shortly, trying to ignore her and fall back into sleep.

"Bella," she said and I was actually shocked to hear a bit of a quiver in her always so secure voice. "We don't know what to do."

Sympathy flushed over me, and I actually pondered sitting up when the door slammed open.

"That's it!" a voice I knew very well shrieked. The next thing I knew, I was being dragged out of my warm bed by the arm.

"ROSALIE!" I roared. "Let me go, right now!"

"Not a freaking chance, Bella," she said coldly, dragging me through the hallway and to the kitchen. I could feel Alice gliding after us.

"Why are you doing this?" I almost sobbed. "I just want to go to sleep."

"We know, Bella," Rosalie said, pushing me onto a kitchen chair. "That's all you ever do nowadays. I swear, if I ever get a hold of that Jacob Black…"

I ignored that last part. This wasn't Jake's fault. Edward had barely met him. No, something crucial had happened between when Edward and I said goodbye in the hallway and when I called him. Something had changed how he felt about me, about us. I just wished I knew what it was, so I could assure him that it was of no importance. I just… needed Edward.

"Do you even realize that Angela and Ben's wedding is just a week away?" Rosalie's annoyed voice cut through my thoughts.

"It is?" I said, and I was surprised by the lack of excitement in my voice.

"Yes," Alice squealed, suddenly clapping her hands. "Ooh, that reminds me! You need to try on your dress!"

I groaned. "Do I really have to? You have my measurements, don't you?"

"I do, but it's not the same thing. I'm the wedding planner; I need everything to be perfect for Angela and Ben."

Guilt flooded over me when I heard Alice's desperate tone. Had I really been that absent lately. "I'm really sorry, guys," I sighed. "This Edward thing just…"

"Really messed you up?" Rosalie supplied. "Don't worry, that's exactly what_ I'm_ going to do to him."

"No!" I shouted, finally feeling some emotion, any at all. "Just leave him be. I don't want to bother him any more than I already have."

Alice and Rosalie glanced at each other. It worried me.

"Come on," Alice suddenly said, standing up. "Let's get that dress on you!"

I sighed, but stood up and followed her into the living room.

The day only got worse when I was reminded that it was my responsibility to throw Angela a decent bridal shower. Panic flowed through my veins and I immediately sat down with a pen and paper. I needed to plan everything and then just make it happen. The wedding was on Saturday, so the bridal shower had to take place Friday at the latest. But I didn't want Angela to be hung over on her own wedding, so Thursday was the last shot. It was already Monday.

"Okay," I sighed and tapped the pen against the tabletop.

We should probably head out to a club, I supposed. Alice had required dancing and makeovers while Rosalie had required male strippers. I really hoped Emmett wouldn't hear about the strippers. My sudden snort of laughter couldn't be stopped as it slipped out of me, but I immediately sobered. Thoughts of Emmett lead to thoughts of Edward. There was no good going there.

So if they started the evening out with drinks and makeovers at their place, later on when they had had a chance to get some alcohol in their system, there would be a stripper or two, and then it was off to a club. Good plan, I thought to myself. Angela would hate it, but everyone else would love it.

--

The week went by far too fast, but the positive thing was that I had so much to do that I didn't have the time to mope around over Edward. He hadn't called me a single time, so I guessed it was truly over. I was nothing to him. We would probably never even see each other ever again. My stomach clenched and I wrapped my arms around my body at the thought. It felt like I had to hold my insides together.

Thursday afternoon, I was strolling around the apartment, fixing the last-minute details before our guests would arrive. Angela still had no idea that this was even happening; Rosalie and Alice was 

supposed to kidnap Angela after her last class of the day. I had a change of clothes for her at our apartment, and she would be here before the other guests so she was at least a little prepared for it all.

At six, the door burst open and a screaming Angela was dragged through it by Alice and Rose. They were both hysteric with laughter while Angela kept trying to fight them.

"WHAT THE HELL?" she shouted in a shrill voice. I resisted the urge to cover my ears.

"Surprise!" I said, grinning and meeting her in the hallway. I had put four shot glasses, four lemon slices and a small bowl of salt on the small table right across from the front door. I figured at least Angela and I would need a little something to put up with Alice the Makeover Nazi.

"Surprise?" Angela squealed. "What kind of surprise?!"

"The best kind," Alice said. "Alcohol, makeup and dancing."

"And cute boys," Rose winked.

"B-boys?" Angela stuttered.

Two hours later, we were halfway drunk. Jessica and Lauren – two girls we knew from high school, neither of whom I liked – had arrived half an hour after Angela. We were spread across the room; I was sitting with Angela and painting her toenails lime green, Rosalie was off by the balcony, reading a fashion magazine and sipping on a Cosmopolitan, while Jessica and Lauren were on the couch, giggling and looking around at our photos. Alice stood up from her spot on the floor, glass in hand, cleared her throat.

"Ladies!" she called. We all looked up at her curiously. "The makeovers are done, we have begun the drinking, Angela has green toenails; everything is ready for the next phase of the party!"

We all cheered as the doorbell suddenly rang. Alice squealed and went to open the door. When she traipsed back in, she was followed by three enormous men wearing fireman suits. Yes. Fireman suits. Everyone laughed and applauded when they began moving to the music that came from Alice's music equipment. It was so absurd to see three grown men rolling their hips and smacking their own asses. Rosalie looked like she was in heaven, though.

I glanced over at Angela and was relieved to see that she seemed to be enjoying herself immensely. I had been a little worried that she wouldn't like this kind of thing, but apparently alcohol had softened the blow for her.

After another hour, when Alice had bought Angela a lapdance from the cutest stripper, we were out the door and on our way to the club. I had realized too late that this club was where I had met Edward for the first time. My stomach clenched as I saw the huge neon sign, and gurgled strangely when I saw the high table he had been sitting at the first time I'd glanced him.

"Bella?" Angela nudged me gently with an elbow. "Are you alright?"

I shook my head to clear it of his face and looked at hers. "Huh? Yeah, I'm fine."

She frowned. "I know you're hurting very bad right now, Bella. I wish there was something I could do for you."

Smiling, I squeezed her arm in thanks. "You can stop worrying about me and enjoy the fact that you're getting married this Saturday."

Her eyes widened. "I'm getting married."

I nodded and let out a short laugh, steering her towards our little crowd of people. "I'm sure it'll sink in, even if it won't be for a year or two."

She giggled, but stopped abruptly after a second. Heaving a deep breath, she stopped me and turned around so we faced each other.

"Okay, I have to tell you something," she said seriously.

My stomach clenched again. Her words sounded so ominous.

Angela stared at me, then she blurted out, "I've invited Edward to the wedding."

"What?!" I gasped, gripping her shoulders. "You… you did… why?"

My head was spinning a hundred miles an hour. I would see Edward again? In less than two days, no less? My heart soared in involuntary happiness that my brain quickly tried to quell. Hoping would do no good.

"That's fine," I said after taking a steadying breath. "I will have to see him sometime anyway, since our friends are dating each other. Why not now?"

Angela seemed to let out a breath. "Oh, thank God. I invited him when you two were still… you know, and he RSVP'd and everything so… I guess he'll show up."

She hugged me tightly to her. "I'm so sorry, Bella. I hope this will go as pain-free for you as possible."

I patted her back before letting her go and snorting. "Please, are you kidding? I welcome pain with open arms."

Angela giggled before being swept away to the bar by a very drunk Jessica. Thankful for the chance to collect my thoughts for a couple of minutes, I plopped down onto the nearest bar stool and stared at the floor.

I dreaded Saturday with most heated fervor, but then why couldn't I kill the small glimmer of something that had started burning in my chest?

--

**A/N: GOOOOOOOD, I have just suffered through one of the worst writer's blocks I've ever had. I'm so sorry, I hate Bella and Edward being apart just as much as anyone. They need to stop misunderstanding everything and clean their act up!**

**Thank you so much for the amazing reviews for last chapter, hope I can scrape together a couple for this chapter from the few readers who could stand the waiting. :-D The next one will be done MUCH sooner, I promise!**


	19. Chapter 19

Weddings were evil, evil things. I had just pressed myself into a skintight piece of garment that, supposedly, was a bridesmaid's dress. This whole maid of honor thing so wasn't worth this. Hell, even Angela had let out a little laugh when she had seen me.

It was really, really tight with a puffy skirt. It was a pretty navy blue color, but I still felt like a ridiculous birthday cake. I didn't understand why Alice and Rosalie's dresses looked so much better than mine.

"Don't worry, Bella," Rosalie had assured me while we waited for the ceremony to begin. "You have the ass for it." And then she smacked said ass.

I looked at her in shock, but couldn't help the chuckle that built inside of me. "Thanks," I muttered, shaking my head but still smiling.

We were standing at the entrance to the church, shaking hands and welcoming the guests. My stomach was fluttering and I wished I could just take out all the pins that were holding my curls in place. I was starting to get a massive headache. I glanced at Rose for what must have been the millionth time, but she shook her head slightly. Edward hadn't arrived yet. I didn't know what I would do when I saw him. Cry? Hit him? Shake his hand and welcome him to the ceremony?

I mostly just wanted to kiss him.

Another twenty minutes must have passed before a loud and burly laugh reached my oversensitive ears. "Babe, you look like a marshmallow!"

I let out a snort of laughter. Emmett was here. I could see Rose growl and give his arm a violent smack. Emmett laughed but I could see him rubbing his arm when Rose looked away. I suddenly froze. Emmett was here. My eyes caught a shimmer of bronze behind him and my heart stopped. There he was, craning his neck and looking around. He was slightly taller than the others around him, save Emmett and Jasper, so I could see his face clearly. He kept swallowing and his eyes flickered around at a frantic pace. How had I survived through two whole weeks without seeing his face? Jasper stood next to him and suddenly seemed to see me. His face broke out into a wide grin and he came over.

"Hey, Bella," he said and gave me a quick hug.

"Hi," I said, trying to look around him at Edward. His neck looked a little flushed and he was looking away.

"Wow," Jasper said, "you look…"

"Like someone wants me to suffer?" I supplied. Jasper laughed.

"Well, I guess we should take our seats," he said, still smiling. I nodded and give him directions to sit on the left side of the church. He nodded and walked down the aisle, and Edward followed him without even a glance my way. Emmett had noticed me, though, and came over to embrace me violently enough for my feet to leave the ground.

"Bells!" he boomed. "You look like a pastry chef's wet dream!"

I laughed and coughed. He got the hint and put me down. I swayed, but he secured me with a hand on my arm. "I'll see you after the ceremony," he said, winked at me and began pushing his way down the aisle to sit next to Edward.

I could see Emmett leaning into Edward and telling him something. Edward smiled ruefully and turned around. My eyes caught his for an eternal second, before my cheeks flushed and I looked away. My heart was thumping violently against my ribcage, and I put a hand against it, trying to get my heartbeat to slow. How did he do this to me with just a look?

A hand landed on my shoulder and rubbed it gently. I looked up to see Rosalie smiling at me. "You okay?"

I nodded and took a deep breath. "I get it," she said and winked at me. "The bastard is looking good enough to eat." She bristled at Edward for a second, as if she thought it was a personal affront that he wasn't suddenly a hunchback, or at least had gotten a very bad haircut.

"I know," I sighed. "Stupid man."

Rose smiled at me and put an arm around my shoulders.

--

The ceremony was beautiful, and I was happy to say that I made my way down the aisle on Ben's best man's arm without any accidents or broken bones. During the whole ceremony, my focus was on one thing: do _not_ look at Edward. The few times I failed, he was staring at me. My neck was warm in a constant blush at feeling his eyes on me again; I didn't think I ever would. My head swam and my palms were slick with nervous sweat. When Angela and Ben kissed, declaring their eternal love for each other, I caught Edward's eye. He was once again staring at me, his eyes smoldering. Rosalie was right; he looked almost _too_ handsome in his black suit and thin black tie.

When the ceremony was over, we all drove over to the ballroom Angela's father had booked for the occasion. White roses were strewn over the tables, with creamy white garments hanging from the ceiling. The shining wooden floors looked positively life threatening to me, and I vowed to not even try to walk without hanging onto someone. Right now, the person closest to me was Ben's best man, Tyler Crowley. He was another old acquaintance from high school and he was nice enough.

"Tyler," I whispered and nudged him discreetly. He leaned down so I could reach his ear. "I'll just hang onto your arm if that's alright."

He chuckled but nodded and offered me his right arm. I took it thankfully and let him lead me to the head table. I followed Edward almost religiously; watching him walking in next to Emmett, who was talking and gesturing without stop. Edward laughed at something Emmett said, and my stomach lurched. How I missed him. Every fiber in my whole body just called out to him, begging me to walk over and kiss him deeply. I fought the urge with all I had, just barely succeeding. It was overwhelming.

I sat down next to a beaming Angela, who never took her eyes off Ben. Tyler smiled at me and went over to sit by Ben's side. Next to me was Alice, and Rosalie was on the other side of her. They both looked at me, probably trying to calculate how close I was to a breakdown. I gave them a small nod to assure them of my mental stability, though I wasn't sure about it myself.

Satisfied with my gesture, Alice stood up and clicked her fork against her empty wine glass. The polite conversation that had been flooding through the hall quickly died out and Alice cleared her throat.

"Hello everyone!" she said excitedly, almost jumping up and down. I could hear Emmett let out a booming laugh, which made everyone else chuckle for a moment. Then the silence continued. "I'd like to welcome you all to the wedding of two of the most amazing people in the world. It has been my pleasure planning it for the last four months, and I wish you all the happiness in the world." She blew Angela and Ben a kiss, making them giggle and kissing quickly. "Well, not that I've got that off my chest, let's eat!"

Everybody cheered as numerous waiters filed through the doors behind our table, placing huge trays on every table. Spirits were high as course after course was brought out. Too soon, it was time for my speech. Tyler had given a very humorous speech about Ben's younger and slightly wilder days and I had a feeling that everyone was hoping I'd be just as entertaining. I took a very deep breath and stood up.

"Hello everyone," I said and was relieved to hear that my voice wasn't shaking. "We're here tonight to celebrate that these two love each other." I gestured to Angela and Ben, who leaned into each other and beamed at me. "That's pretty obvious, right?" I winked, and thankfully there was laughter. "Everyone deserves to find someone, just as Angela has found Ben, but life isn't always fair. That's why this is such a cause for celebration. Angela and Ben are promising to love each other forever, no matter how hard it might get." I dared a glance at Edward. He was staring at me, his jaw clenched. I couldn't read his eyes. "And it might get very hard sometimes. Luckily, Ben already knows about Angela's addiction to cleaning." Laughter again. "Well, I wish you a long and sickeningly happy life together. I love you both. To Angela and Ben!" I raised my glass and all the guests did the same. Before I sat down, I added, "Oh, and Ben, always remember to put down the toilet seat. I read somewhere that not doing that is the biggest cause for divorce."

Everybody cheered and laughed, and I let out a breath in relief. Alice leaned into me, grinning broadly. "That was great, Bella!"

Angela squeezed my arm and pulled me into a tight hug. "Thank you, that was perfect." She turned to Ben. "And it might've sounded like she joked about the toilet seat, but I hope you know better."

Ben grinned, "Yes, dear." And then he kissed her soundly.

I smiled at them, but a part of me clenched in jealousy. Not knowing what to do with myself, I got up to go to the ladies' room. I could at least check my make up.

When I got out of the hall and into the beautiful corridor that led to the entrance, I noticed someone leaning against the wall next to the bathroom doors. Edward. I took a sharp breath in shock. I didn't want to do this. He noticed the sound and looked over at me. When he recognized me, he stiffened and stood up straight, facing me.

"Hi," he said in a low voice. He didn't smile.

"Hi," I imitated him. We looked at each other for a moment. In that moment, I was reliving every second I had ever spent with him. Long nights in his arms, that night in front of the fire with cocoa, kissing him at the Literati. When I realized he wasn't about to say anything else, I sighed. Brushing past him, I made my way into the ladies' room and just had time to lock myself into a stall before breaking down into tears.

--

When I had finally gotten my make up in order and had returned to the ballroom, the dancing had begun. I could spot Alice steering Jasper across the floor, while Rose was moving against Emmett. I shook my head slowly; was there anywhere they didn't feel the need to constantly rub up against each other? I couldn't really blame them, though. They were in love.

I plopped down onto my chair at the high table and took a sip of my wine. Trying to look around discreetly, I found that I couldn't see Edward anywhere. I frowned, disappointed. Then I felt a hand on my shoulder. I swung around, eagerly expecting to find Edward, but instead found Tyler.

"Whoa, hey," he said, startled by my sudden movement.

"Hi," I tried not to sigh.

"I wondered if you would like to dance with me?" he asked. I looked at him. He even seemed a little nervous.

"Sure, okay. But if you need to amputate any toes after this, I am not to be held responsible."

"Right," he laughed. "Duly noted."

He held out his hand and I took it, allowing him to lead me out onto the slippery floor. His hand landed on my waist and mine gripped his shoulder. We started to move with the song that was playing. He was dancing while I was mostly trying to stay on my feet. Damn high heels.

"If you don't relax you're gonna have an aneurysm," Tyler chuckled.

"Huh?"

"You're concentrating so hard on your feet, I'm scared you'll burst something," he winked at me.

I blushed a little. "I'm not very good at dancing. Or walking."

"Well, we can't have everything," he said.

I smiled at him and nodded. I was actually beginning to enjoy myself. Tyler was a good dancer and I hadn't fallen down even once. That was when I felt his hand suddenly resting slightly lower on my back. I groaned internally. We would have to have a conversation. I looked at him with an eyebrow raised, but he just grinned and shrugged.

Damn men. Why couldn't you just have a good time without it being sexual? It seemed to be genetically impossible. If you didn't see them as asexual brothers, like I did Emmett and Jasper.

When I was pondering how to get Tyler's hand off my ass without falling and breaking something, he suddenly stopped dancing. I looked up in confusion and saw Edward standing there with his hand on Tyler's shoulder.

"May I cut in?" he asked coldly, though it didn't even sound like a question. I saw Tyler wishing he could just shrink away.

"Sure," he croaked. I understood his fear; Edward's eyes were terrifying when he was angry.

And then I was where I had dreamt of being; in his arms. A slower song was playing now and he gently swayed us in time to it. My thoughts were scattered, feeling his body against mine again made me dizzy.

"Thanks," I finally croaked.

"For what?"

"Saving me from getting groped by Ben's best man," I said seriously.

He chuckled darkly. "My pleasure, believe me."

His hands loosened around me and I widened my eyes in panic. He looked at me. "Well, I guess you don't need my assistance anymore."

"Wait," I said, feeling embarrassed, but it was worth it if it would give me some more time in his arms. He stared at me without expression. "He might come back," I said in a low voice, feeling stupid.

I could see his jaw working as he nodded and swept me into his arms again. I felt triumphant, resting my cheek against his neck. "I don't know if I should say this," I mumbled, the blush creeping across my cheeks, "but I missed you."

He stiffened slightly. "Really?"

I looked up at him and nodded fervently. "Terribly."

His eyes were suddenly very intense. "And what about Jacob Black?"

"How did - ?"

"I got an angry call from Rosalie," he said, smiling slightly. "This Monday. She told me about you and Jacob, and how the kiss –"

I slapped a hand across my forehead. "The _kiss_! You saw the kiss! That's what happened, of course." I was mostly talking to myself now.

"I did," he nodded, looking slightly sad. "Rosalie told me it was involuntary, though. Was she telling me the truth?"

I smacked his shoulder without thinking. "Of course she was! Oh, you're so stupid! You made me cry over you for two weeks for something I didn't even do?"

He looked shocked. "You cried over me?"

I felt like crying right then and there, he was making me so frustrated. "Edward," I said, fighting the urge to stomp my foot. "Listen to me. When I told you that I loved you, I wasn't lying or exaggerating."

His eyes were shining and I put my hand against his cheek. "Can you please stop being an idiot now?" I asked him, trying to keep a straight face.

"I guess I'll try," he shrugged. Then he grinned and pulled me tighter against him, breathing into my hair. "Oh God, how I've missed you. You smell spectacular."

"Gee, thanks," I giggled, but my heart was soaring.

Alice caught my eye from over Edward's shoulder. She was waving frantically, looking like she might explode. Jasper laughed at her but gave me a subtle wink. I smiled at them and refocused on Edward.

"Bella…" he breathed before leaning down.

I caught his lips with mine, almost groaning at the feeling of him again. There was nothing like this feeling; I couldn't understand why we'd ever stopped kissing each other. My hands wound in his hair and tugged him even closer while his hands pulled my waist tighter against him. Normally, I would be embarrassed by this extremely public display of affection, but this was an exception. I had my Edward back.

We broke apart for air and I laughed breathlessly, resting my forehead against his. We stared at each other. "Edward," I said, trying not to giggle. "Will you please be my boyfriend again?"

He chuckled. "Yes, Bella. I would like that very much."

I smiled at our immature reunion, and pressed my face against his neck again.

This time I wouldn't let anything come in our way.

--

**A/N: Whee, a fast update! And I just got 400 reviews! Thank you all so much.**

**I don't really know if this is the end, to be honest. There will probably be an epilogue at least. What do you guys think? More plot, an epilogue or is this the end? **

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